Dustbin Baby
by PurpleSkiesandRainbows
Summary: All Tessa knows is that boys are more trouble than they're worth, friends stab you in the back and family let you down. Proof? she was abandoned at birth, betrayed by friends and stayed clear from boys. Can the DG prove her otherwise? Rated T for swearing, and Liam/OC! (Please read and review summary sucks :P)
1. Something Evitt-Riley

Disclaimer: I don't own any of the characters except Tess.

Plus i got a lot of inspiration from Jacqueline Wilson, so sorry if it's too similar :P

Gazing out of the window as the sun shone brightly over me, and flicking my jet black hair with streaks of purple out of my face before tying it into a ponytail. I've been wondering what the new care home looks like, and if it's better than half of the care home's I've been too. However Elaine the pain's shit music's been blaring into my ears for about half an hour, so I can barely think.

"TESS! Have you been listening to anything I just said?!"" Elaine screams at the top of her voice.

"Huh? Not really…" I reply, trailing off back into my own little world

"I said," Elaine says slowly, trying not to shout, "I said that you should try toning down how you dress and come across, first impressions are important!"

"What's your problem now?! Honestly, first impressions are a load of bullsh-"

"Language Tess!" Elaine cuts me off, "Tess, you're wearing purple coloured contacts, added purple tips on your hair, wearing purple high waisted shorts, a grey T-Shirt and studded vans!"

"And? By the way, my top has the Rolling Stones logo on it, you would know that if you had any taste in music, my shorts have silver studs on the left side and studs on my vans are wing shaped, because they're awesome! Oh and don't forget my diamante cross necklace and cross earrings!" I say.

Elaine sighs, I can tell that I'm pissing her off, so I get my headphones and my phone from my bag, and listen to Airplanes by and Hayley Williams (that song describes my whole effing life) and read a magazine to pass the time. I honestly don't get what Elaine the Pain has against what I wear. So what if I like purple? It compliments my brown skin.

"Hey Elaine, Is my real name actually Tessa?"

"Your Surname is definitely Evitt-Riley, but your real first name is still unknown," Elaine replies.

I was abandoned as a baby, in a dustbin, hence the nickname Dustbin Baby, wrapped in purple blankets, hence my favorite colour being purple. It kind of reminds me that someday, I'll find out everything I don't know about myself, like my actual first name, or when I was born, or who my parents are. I think I'm 14, and found on August 2nd, so I pretend that's my birthday.

"Tess, Elm Tree House is about 10 minutes away; I think you'll like it there."

"Yeah but how am I going to get to Rosewood Grace from here? It's like an hour away!"

"You can get the train, it's all been arranged, you'll be getting a pass and you won't get detentions for being late, but you can board if you want to"

"Depends what the place is like, I still don't get why I had to move, I made friends there!" I muttered

"We told you each time you asked, that there was too many people!" I moaned

"We'll talk about that late Tess, we're here now." Elaine says, avoiding the conversation. I give up and get out of the car and trip on a rock. Smooth. I pretend that didn't happen and get a suitcase and my guitar.

"Tessa, this Is Mike, Gina, and Tracy" Elaine says, gesturing to a tall man, a large lady in a colourful maxi dress, with dark shin like mine, and a woman with brown hair, wearing black jeans, a blue t-shirt and a black jacket.

"Hey, nice to meet you." I say, I then feel that someone's watching me, I look at the window and I see a girl with black hair covered in pink clothes and a boy with brown hair wearing a checked shirt. A split second after they realize that that I can see them they hide, and run somewhere. I can hear people whispering inside, probably about me. The boy with brown hair looks strangely familiar though.

"What does she look like?"

"She's really pretty, and she has purple eyes!"

"If she has purple eyes then is she a monster?"

"No Harry she has coloured contacts. I wonder what her real eye colour is?"

"Do you want me to help you with your things?" Mike asks me

"Sure, Thanks!" I say, as Mike picks up my suitcases and heads inside.

I wonder if Elm Tree House is another loony bin

I guess I'll have to find out.


	2. Surprise Encounter for the New Girl

As soon as I make one step into Elm Tree House I'm bombarded by questions, compliments and introductions, all at the same time, so it all sounds like unrecognisable chattering.

"You guys can ask questions later" Mike tells them, leading me to my room.

"Oh and by the way, my real eyes are brown" I said, hinting to them that I heard every word they whispered. "Which one's my room?" I asked, looking back to Mike

"Third door on the left."

"Do I have to share with anyone?" I asked

"Not at the moment, we'll tell you if you have to." Mike says, leaving my room. I guess I should start packing now, but before I can even unzip my suitcases I hear knocking on my door.

"Come in!" I say, so a boy wearing a navy blue shirt and beige trousers comes into my room.

"My name's Gus Carmichael. I need to know your name."

"It's Tess, full name Tessa Evitt-Riley"

"How do you spell you name?"

"Tessa, T-E-S-S-A, Evitt, E-V-I-T-T, Riley, R-I-L-E-Y"

"Its 4 o' clock, I need to give you your tour." Gus exclaims, writing in a notebook.

"Um ok, it would help to know where everything is." I reply, following him.

"This is the living room." He starts, once we got to the living room. "This is Carmen, Tee and Lily. Lily does not live here but now she is here for respite care." Gus says, pointing at the girl covered in pink clothing, a smiley girl of about 11, with her mousy brown hair in a ponytail, wearing a blue hoody and jeans, and a girl in a purple cardigan with brown hair.

"Hey I'm Tess." I say, waving.

"Hi Tess, your hair is so cool!" Carmen says, pointing at my black hair with purple tips.

"Thanks!"

"Can I move on with the tour?" Gus says "I put 120 seconds of talking between speaking!" Gus says. I follow him. "This is the kitchen. And this is Frank, Johnny, Tyler and Rick. Johnny is Tee's older brother." Johnny looks a bit like Tee, Frank, I think he's got cerebral palsy, Tyler's got a black afro.

" Hey I'm Tessa" I say, waving, they wave back. "Rick is that you?" I ask, slightly shell-shocked.

"Tess? I haven't seen you since you got moved!" Rick practically yells, bear hugging me. "You got purple tips on your hair, and coloured contacts, so you finally got them."

"Yeah, I don't know why everyone keeps going on about it! At least I changed my mind about that nose piercing! By the way can you let go, I can't really breathe!" I say, as Rick is practically chocking me

"Are you done?" Gus asks me, checking his watch nervously, with a hint of agitation in his voice

"Yeah alright." I say, following him again.

"This is Sapphire's bedroom, if you open the down without knocking, she throws things. If you knock-"He says, knocking the door

"Go away!"

"She'll tell you to go away." He says, moving on the next room, "This is Liam's bedroom." Gus says, knocking the door.

"Who is it?" I hear a strong cockney accent say.

"It's Gus, I'm showing the new girl around"

"Is she fit?" Liam asks, Gus doesn't say anything, thank god; it would be way too awkward if he did.

"Just open the door!" Gus yells, and so Liam does. He's got brown hair, and chocolate brown eyes. His face is splashed with freckles, and he's wearing a purple Adidas hoody and blue jeans.

"Gus you didn't answer my ques-" Liam begins to say, before looking at me.

"So she is pretty fit!" Liam says, with a massive, cheeky grin.

"And she has a name! It's Tess" I say, casually ignoring what he just said

"I'm Liam. Nice eyes." He says

"Right let's move on with the tour. This is Electra." Gus says. Electra has blue streaks in her hair, and she's wearing a blue zip up hoodie, a black vest and jeans. She seems quiet; I've met people like her. Silent, but deadly. Somehow I doubt that Electra is her real name.

"And this is Harry," Gus says, gesturing toward a small boy of about seven with light blond hair, he's holding a stuffed Giraffe

"Hi Harry, I'm Tess"

"Hi Tess, this Is Jeff" Harry says, he then puts the giraffe to his ear

"Jeff thinks you have weird eyes"

"Nice to meet you Jeff" I say, shaking the giraffe's leg "My eyes are cool, not weird" Eventually, he shows me where the girls toilets are, where the boys toilets are and the attic and basement.

When Gus is done with the tour I go to my room, and try to start unpacking, but once again, I'm interrupted by someone knocking in my room. Probably Gus, I guess he forgot something, but he seems way too organised.

"Come in!" I say. But instead, Carmen, Tee and Lily all come into my room.

"Hey Tess. Need any help?" Carmen asks, wandering around my room

"Hey. Don't worry, I'm good."

"Ok, so… what did you think of Elm Tree House so far"

"It seems nice, way better than Burnywood." I say, still not looking up from my suitcase

"Yeah, Burnywood was horrible, I hate Dennis!" Carmen exclaimed, folding her arms.

"You went to Burnywood?" I asked, looking up at Carmen

"Yeah for a week, Elm Tree House got shut down for a bit because Lily fell off the roof." Carmen replied, almost immediately after she finished speaking Lily looked down at the floor. "So, how long have you been in care?"

"All my life."

"Oh, sorry about that." Carmen says, in a pitying tone. I hate it when people pity me, it's like they look down on me.

"Don't worry its fine." I replied, smiling at her, emphasising that I didn't want her sympathy. Then there was an awkward silence, since everyone was trying to think of something to say. Then Gina knocks on my door.

"Tess can I come in?" Gina asks, I only just realised that she's got a Jamaican accent.

"Sure." I say, one again not looking up from my suitcase.

"Girls, give Tessa some space yeah? Gina tells Carmen, Tee and Lily, they reluctantly leave my room. "Tess, how are you getting on?"

"Good thanks." I say

"Well don't mind Carmen, Tee and Lily, they were probably trying to make you feel at home here, yeah?" Gina says, realising that they can be annoying. "Well I'll leave you to finish unpacking"

"OK." I say, as Gina leaves my room. I eventually got bored of unpacking so I just lied in my bed, staring at the ceiling. Then I hear another knock on my door, this is getting annoying now,

"What do you want no-" I shout, flinging the door open and then realising that Liam's at the door.

"So this is the greeting that I get?" Liam asks, with a Cheshire cat grin on his face, he's also carrying a big bottle full of blue stuff

"Sorry, I thought you were Carmen, or Gus, or even Gina."

"So Carmen was bothering you, don't worry she does that to everyone, and Gus' got Aspergers Syndrome," Liam says, placing himself on my bed realising that Carmen's probably been a pain in the arse, "so how are ya getting on?"

"It's alright I guess, but the first day is always worse than the second."

"Yeah, but don't worry, its way better than most care homes."

"How many care homes have you been to?" I ask

"I dunno really, I lost count, what about you?"

"I'm not really sure, like 18 ish? In some care homes they'd try and beat you up, or nick all your stuff on the first day, and I kept on getting moved because I beat people up when they tried to fight me."

"Yeah but don't worry, that doesn't happen here." Liam replies, I can tell from his face expression that he's been through all that shit as well. "So, why don't ya tell me something about ya?"

"That's for me to know and for you to find out." I reply, smiling "By the way what the heck is in that bottle?"

"Liamade."

"What's in it?" I ask.

"If I told ya, I'd have to kill ya." He replies, raising an eyebrow. "But… you can try some." He adds, pouring some into a cup. I reluctantly try some, but it makes me gag.

"No offence but, this is horrible." I say, the taste of it is still stuck in my mouth

"None taken, it kinda grows on ya." He replies, "Well, Gina told me to tell ya that lunch is ready, usually she'll just shout, well come on then!" He rambles, grabbing my wrist and running down the stairs.


	3. Crush

**- Hands piece of cake. Thanks and yeah I got the idea from Jacqueline Wilson, so it might be similar at times :P**

**Cookie05- Hands Cookie (it's your username) :)**

2 days later

I drowsily got out of bed at around half 10, earliest time this week, yesterday I got up at 1. I had a shower and went downstairs, still in my pyjamas, checkered purple shorts, a black oversized t-shirt, and black bed slippers. I was slightly surprised when I saw everyone fully dressed, already having breakfast, there wasn't much left apart from some toast and cereal. I went and grabbed a piece of toast, and was about to get the Nutella, when someone else grabbed it just before me.

"Oii!" I yelled, whilst looking to see who's had that was

"You snooze you lose, Tess" says Liam, with his classic cheeky grin, I don't know why, but his grin make me feel like I have butterflies in my stomach

"Just hurry up!" I sighed, "Tee, please could you pass me the butter?" I ask Tee, because I'm too impatient to wait for Liam.

"Sure" She replies, handing it to me, the split second I do, Liam hands me the Nutella.

"Here, I'm done with it now." Liam exclaims, raising an eyebrow.

"Finally!" I say, sighing in frustration. I spread the Nutella on my toast and eat it, whilst I sit next to Tee and Rick.

After breakfast I go to my room and get changed into blue high-waisted jeans, a thin black jumper with studs on the shoulders, which I tucked into the jeans, and purple Doc Martens, along with silver hoop earring and a purple shamballa. The moment I walk outside my room to go downstairs Liam runs into me and knocks me over.

"Owww!" I yell, before opening my eyes and realising that Liam on top of me, so I can't get up,

"Whoops, sorry Tess." He says, getting off of me, and then holding his hand out to me. I reluctantly grab his hand and he pulls me off "You alright?"

"Yeah I'm fine." I reply, dusting myself off "See ya." I went downstairs, though I felt as if Liam was watching me, but I just shrugged it off and went to look for Mike,

"Mike, have you seem my guitar?" I asked him, anxiously,

"Didn't Rick borrow it?"

"He did? Oh, well thanks Mike!"

"It's no problem." Mike replies, as I run up the stair to Rick's room and knock on the door

"Come in"

"Do you have my guitar?" I ask him as I go inside

"Huh? Oh yeah I did, sorry for not telling you." Rick replies, lying on his bed

"That's fine, I just need to practise" I tell him, picking up my guitar

"Hey Tess?"

"Yeah"

"Can you play something?" Rick asks me, sitting up

"Like what?"

"Anything."

"Why?"

"Well you're the musical prodigy who plays 16 instruments, play something"

"17" I corrected him, unzipping the case for my guitar.

"Shit! The string's broken!" I yell "Rick what the hell did you do to my guitar?!" I ask, angrily glaring at him.

"Oh yeah... I forgot about that, sorry!" Rick says, with an apologetic tone in his voice, and his face flushed with pink

"You know what it's fine, I'm just going to ask Gina to get it fixed, see ya" I tell him, picking up my guitar and taking it downstairs

"So what ya got there?" I hear a familiar cockney accent say,

"Isn't it obvious?" I yell sarcastically, "Of course you can see that's it's a guitar"

"So you play the guitar?"

"NO!" I said sarcastically again, "Of course I do, along with the Piano, Violin, Electric Guitar, Keyboard, Trombone, Drums, Saxophone, Flute, Trumpet, French Horn, Harp, Bass Guitar, Cello, Double Bass, Harmonica, and singing, if that counts. Oh and I used to play the bagpipes"

"Shit, that's a lot of instruments!"

"Yeah, come with me, I need to get Gina to get me guitar fixed.

"Alright"

"Hey, Liam?"

"What?"

"I've just realised that I've bumped into you like 7 times in the past 2 days, are you, like, some crazy stalker?"

"Nope, you're just interesting."

"Interesting?" I ask raising my eyebrows

"Yeah, I mean, loads of girls I know would just like throw themselves at me, but you're different, and really funny, since most girls just bitch about other girls they know. Plus you're the only person I know who would have purple tips and purple coloured contacts, but they suit ya."

"Thanks! But you've got to admit, it is a bit weird running into you like 24/7, sometimes literally."

"Fine, ya could give me your number though?"

"Alright" I say writing my number down.

"Cheers Tess" Liam says, taking the paper from me, winks, and giving me one of his classic grins. And as he walks away, and as I feel the butterflies in my stomach, it dawns on me

I've got a crush on Liam O' Donavan.

Honestly I would have stared for longer, but I'd realised I'd dropped my guitar. Feeling embarrassed i picked it up and rushed off the Gina again.


	4. Ice Cream and Fake Birthdays

"Hey Gina, I broke my guitar string, can I have some money to get it fixed, since I've got like 4 lessons today?"

"Yeah sure, how did it get broken?"

"I don't know."

"Well, don't worry. You do know where to get it fixed, yeah?" Gina asks me, giving me £30 pounds

"Yeah I do" I reply, as I leave the office, running into Tracy

"Tracy?"

" Yeah Tess?"

"Can you go to town with me since I forgot how to get there?"

"Sure, I'll give you a ride."Tracy says, picking up her car keys, and walking down to her car. "So what do you need to do when you're in town?" Tracy asks me once we're in the car

"Well I need to fix my guitar, then I have like, 4 music lessons"

"Why do you have so many lessons in one day?" Tracy asks, with a shocked look on her face

"Haven't you read my file?"

"Well… not yet, I never really got round to it"

"Well It says in my file, that I play 17 instruments, since I was 5"

"Wow, how did you have time to do all of that?!" Tracy asks, shell shocked

"Easy, I'd spend my entire Sunday, Monday and half of Tuesday in lessons. My care workers wanted to keep me occupied, since I'd always ask about my family. When they didn't tell me, I'd throw tantrums."

"Sounds like my past, I'd always ask my social worker if my mum had called, it was always the same answer, not yet."

"Who was your social worker?"

"Elaine, everyone used to call her-"

"Elaine the Pain?"

"How do you know that?"

"She's my social worker, usually she just lectures me for having purple coloured contacts and purple tips in my hair."

"Sounds like Elaine to me, back when she was me social worker and I was in care"

"You were in care?" I asked, shocked

"Yeah, I'd always ask about my mum, and if she had called or said anything, she never did. Except once."

"I'd always ask if they have found my real family, they always said they were looking, personally I don't think they ever bothered, so I gave up asking."

"Your real family?" Tracy asks, with a confused look on her face

"Yeah, if you read my file you would know." I started to say, slowly looking down at the floor, "I don't know what my real first name is, who my parents are, of my birthday and that sort of stuff."

"You don't know your birthday?! Didn't your parents write some sort of note?!"

"…I-I don't really want to talk about it." I mutter quietly, but loud enough for Tracy to hear. Then I spend a few minutes, staring out the window, since I have nothing else to say.

"Well, we're here" Tracy says, getting out of the car, but then her phone rings She picks it out of the pockets of her skinny jeans, flicks the top and puts it to her ear, She's talking to somebody called Cam. "Tess, I'm sorry, but my foster mum, Cam, needs me to help her in the house. Liam's texted me and he's also in town, he'll be here around about now." Tracy, rambles, climbing back into her car. "Well, I have to go now, sorry!" Tracy says, as she speeds off. For a care worker, she doesn't seem very organised. As I stay standing there, being lost in my trail of thoughts, someone taps me on the shoulder, which shocked me a little bit, until I realise that, that's probably Liam, and when I turn around, my thoughts were confirmed.

"Hey Liam. Where's the music store?"

"Just follow me" Liam says, walking off, with his hands in his pockets, he walks fast, meaning I have to powerwalk to keep up. As soon as we get there, Liam starts admiring the drum kit, and I walk up to the man at the counter,

"Excuse me, please can you fix my guitar" I ask him, handing him my guitar. He's tall, has long scruffy dirty blonde hair, green eyes, and he's wearing, an AC/DC T-shirt and jeans.

"Sure, give me like 10 minutes" He replies, looking straight into my eyes. I eventually get tired of waiting and start to wander around, looking at the instruments,

"Hey Tess, this guitar would suit ya!" Liam calls out from the other side of the store. He's pointing at an electric guitar, that's purple with black on the outside, like mine, except mine's white and black.

"Yeah." I agree, walking over to it, "But I still have mine, so I guess I'll have to wait." I sighed, not really sure about what else to say, so I make my way over to the counter, and wait for the guy to finish fixing the guitar string,

"Well, here you go, that'll be £10." He says, handing me my guitar, I pressed a folded £10 note into his palm, and put my now fixed guitar into the case and slink it around my shoulder.

"Cheers." I say to him. "Come on then!" I yell at Liam, who's gazing at a drum kit.

"So, where do ya want to go then?" I ask Liam, once we've gotten out of the music store.

"Well.." Liam starts to say, obviously think about where he wants to go

"You can almost hear your brain cells whizzing into action"

"Oi shut up!" Liam replies, jokily, followed by a grin. I realise that my face feels flushed and I'm probably blushing, so I quickly look down. By the time I look up, Liam's already made his way into the shop

"Hey thanks for waiting" I sarcastically yell at Liam, once I've found him, the inside of the store is bigger than it looks.

"Hey ya welcome" Liam replies, looking at a pair of black Vans.

"Those would suit you, what do you think of these?" I ask him, pointing at a pair of purple toms

"They're Ok, why are ya asking me this?"

"Because there's nobody else to ask, what do you think of those purple creepers, the ones with the really thick soles?"

"They're alright, they'd suit ya, by the way, is it true that you don't know your birthday?" Liam asks me, randomly changing the subject.

"Yeah, I was abandoned, as a baby, so I don't know most things about me. How do you know this?" I sighed,

Liam taps his nose, "I didn't think you were like me though."

"I'm guessing you were ditched too?"

"Yep, outside the hospital, what about you?"

"Don't really wanna say, you'll laugh at me."

"I promise I won't laugh!"

"Fine, I was found, wrapped in purple blankets… in a dustbin" I say, forcing the words out of my mouth. The moment I finish, Liam starts sniggering

"Hey you said you wouldn't laugh!" I yell, hitting him upside the head

"Sorry, just, when I went to Burnywood, everyone talked about this girl, but everyone called her Dustbin Baby, I just had no clue it was you!" Liam explains, still smiling

"Well I'll forgive you," I say, letting out a little laugh, and smiling, which makes Liam grin back. How come I'm admitting why I'm in care to someone I met 2 days ago? At the last care home it took me a year. I always built a wall from everyone; it's like as soon as he smiles that wall is gone, as if I've known him forever. As we leave the shop, we walk past an ice cream van

"Hey let's get some ice cream, but I'm picking yours" Liam says, as he joins the queue, "Wait there."

After a few minutes, Liam returns,

"I just got us both mint chocolate chip." Liam says, handing me mine.

"Thanks, that's my favourite flavour" I say, grinning at him, and he blushes a tiny bit before smiling back. Then I check my watch, its 4.30. "Shit, my lessons start in 15 minutes" I say, "See ya Liam" I say, hugging him. I'm not sure why I did, but I did. When I let go Liam's gone red. Then I make my way through the sea of people, and get to my lessons early.


	5. Helpful Me

The next morning

"Tess get up." A voice says, I think I'm dreaming, so I ignore it. "Tess!" The voice says, a little louder. Still no acknowledgement from me "TESS!" The voice screams, and I realise that Liam's screaming in my ear, but the shock makes me fall off my bed anyway.

"Mornin' Tess" Liam says, bursting out laughing

"Why the hell did you do that!" I yelled at him, in a cranky mood. Liam handed me some paint, purple, red, black, and blue.

"Mike said that you can start painting your room; go to Mike for the brushes, oh yeah, it's 2 o clock" Liam replies, checking his phone. That reminds me, it's August the 2nd ,isn't it? The day I was found, or my fake birthday. Great.

"Fine" I sighed, walking out of my room, down the stairs and into Mike's office

"Mike, Liam said that you said that I can repaint my room, can I get the brushes?" I ask him when he lets me in

"Sure they're right on that desk" Mike says, not looking up from some paperwork he's filling out. I pick up the paintbrushes and rollers, and go back to my room. Then I change into purple sweatpants and a black vest top. I took a quick look around the blue walls, and try to think of what to do. The first thing I do is paint over the blue walls with; yep you guessed it, purple. I suddenly realised that there was no way I'd be able to reach the top of the wall, so I was about to go and look for a ladder

"Kids! Get down here now!" Gina screams, at the top of her lungs, so loud that it felt like the ground was shaking, I went down the stairs and into the living room, I'm guessing that Gina and Mike have some sort of announcement. There's unrecognisable chattering as everyone wonders what Mika and Gina are going to say.

"Kids, Kids!" Mike says, "Since there's about a month to go, before school-" Mike starts to say, before being interrupted by everyone's groaning

"Thanks for reminding us Mike." Rick moans sarcastically, before looking at me through the corner of his eye, I gave him a reassuring smile, and he smiles back and looks away

"That's not the point though. We've planned to go to a water park tomorrow" Mike explains, and from everyone's reactions, they seem pretty happy now. "We'll set off in the minivan at 9, and we'll get there by 11, and if we stop we should get there by 12"

"Tess, could you help me and Lily with packing?" Tee asks me, once everyone's gone to their rooms

"Sure" I say, following them to Tee's room

"What do you think of this" Tee asks me, holding up a blue and white polka dot-one piece swimsuit. "I just can't find an outfit to wear over it"

"The costume's cute." I say, digging through her wardrobe "Why not wear, these black skinny jeans, This striped T-Shirt with a pink bow on it, a pink belt, and brown boots" I continue, throwing all the things I've just mentioned on her bed.

"Yeah that's great, thanks Tess!" Tee says, grinning at me.

"So Lily, what have you picked out so far?" I ask her

"Well, I was going to wear this," She explains, showing me a floral tankini, "But I've got no clue on what to wear."

"Get these ripped blue jeans, this white jumper with the black bow on the shoulder, and these leopard print converse." I say, picking them up from the floor, I'm hoping they're clean.

"Thanks Tessa!" Lily says, smiling at me

"Call me Tess" I tell her, as I get up and go to my room to finish painting my room, and about 10 minutes in, Rick comes into my room.

"Hey Rick, why are you here?" I asked, still trying to reach the top of the wall.

"I was bored, since everyone's packing. Need any help?"

"Yeah I can't fucking reach" I say, on my tip toes.

"Alright, Titch" Rick replies, lifting me up.

"What the heck are you doing?!" I yell at him, kicking my legs.

"Helping you reach to top corners, stop kicking!" he answers, manoeuvring me so I'm sitting on his shoulders. Since I can easily reach the top, I start paining the rest of the wall, still purple. Eventually, with the help of Rick, I end up finishing my room, 3 of the walls are purple, the other is black. I can't really be bothered to do anything else, but when I turn around, Rick flicks purple paint at me, I look down, and my black T-shirt and purple sweats are scattered with specs of purple.

"Oi what the hell was that for?!" I ask, laughing a bit.

"I was just bored." Rick shrugs, dipping the paintbrush in paint

"You know what?" I start to say, suddenly getting an idea, "That deserves a hug!" I yell, running up to him and hugging him, making sure that the paint that's on me gets on him. When I let him go, his blue jeans, black t-shirt and checked shirt are all scatted with purple.

"I would yell, but I had that one coming" Rick says, laughing.

"You got that right" I say, sticking my tongue out at him "Oh Crap, I've got to pick what to wear tomorrow! Oh well, I'll pick that out tomorrow." I say, walking out of my room, Rick leaves my room, and goes the other way. I've got no clue what to do next, so I go into Liam's room, who's picking what to wear for tomorrow

"You don't really seem like the kind of person who bother about what they wear." I say, with my hands in my pockets, Liam looks up at my and starts sniggering, probably because of the paint.

"You know that paint was meant for the walls, right?" He asks jokily,

"Yep, I just got flicked with paint" I say, scraping my hair into a ponytail "So, what have you picked out then?"

"Purple Hoodie, jeans, black vans." Liam states, "What've you picked out?"

"I can't be bothered to pick yet, so I'll do that in the morning,"

"You do know we leave at 9 right, I'll be sure to wake you up again!" Liam teases, my face flushes red, I'm not sure if it's because I'm blushing or annoyance.

"You're lucky you have a cute face…" I mutter, only realising that I actually said the words when Liam's face goes red. I start blushing red due to embarrassment.

"You're lucky, since you have dark skin, you don't blush as much. But you look cute you blush" Liam says, grinning, I must look adorable now as my cheeks are on fire

"Yeah, my mum was mixed race, my dad must have been black, since my skin tones darker than hers." I mumble, sitting down on Liam's bed. As both Liam and I are trying to think of something to say, there's an awkward silence. "Well, since I don't want to spend an hour last minute tomorrow, I'm going to pick what to wear See ya" I say, leaving his room, and walking back to mine. I dig through all the clothes in my room, and pick out high waisted jeans, a Rolling Stones oversized T-shirt tucked into the jeans, with purple Vans, and a studded biker jacket. Problem is the swimsuit. I can only find one. It's a purple leopard print string bikini, so revealing… I've still got that birthmark/Scar, it goes horizontally across my lower back, it's about 4 shades darker than my skin so it's noticeable. I gave up so I threw the bikini into my bag and went downstairs to the living room.

"Hey Rick, Frank; fancy a game of pool?" I offer, picking up a pool cue.

"Sure, Johnny, wanna play pool?"

"Umm, I'll pass."

"Fine" Frank Sighs

"Hey Tyler, wanna play pool?" Rick asks, once Tyler walks into the living room.

"Sure, I guess" Tyler says.

"Alright, I'll go with Tess, You go with Frank" Rick says, handing Tyler a pool cue.

"Dinner" Gina bellows, and I realise that its 6 o clock, everyone goes to the dining table, and I grab a seat next to Sapphire and Gus.

"Tess?" Gus asks, holding his notebook

"Yeah?" I say picking up a plate.

"Why are you in care?" Gus asks me. The question I dreaded most of all. Liam looks at me, trying not to laugh

"Do I really have to say that?"

"Yes"

"Why"

"Because I said so"

"Can I tell you later?" I ask, Liam raises an eyebrow

"Fine, but before we go to the waterpark" Gus says, putting the notebook on the table. Even through I'm not hungry, I force myself to have some chicken curry, which is surprisingly nice,

"Mike, what time do we have to get up?" Carmen asks

"I would say, between 7 and 8"

"What?! That early?!" I blurt out

"Yep," Mike said I sighed in frustration and everyone laughed. After dinner, I have a bath, set my phone Alarm to 7, put the clothes I picked next to it, and climb into bed. I've always needed to sleep loads, I don't know why. Eventually, After ages of tossing and turning, I drift off to sleep.

Thanks to all reviewers!


	6. They Forgot Us

My phone Alarm wakes me up at 8, and I get up to go to the bathroom, but it's already occupied.

"Hurry Up!" I say, leaning on the wall

"Fine" Carmen replies, and after a few minutes, she leaves. I have a shower, and go back to my room to get changed into what I picked from yesterday; high waisted jeans, a Rolling Stones oversized T-shirt tucked into the jeans, with purple Vans, and a studded biker jacket, I've got my swimsuit on underneath, and my towel in a Nike Just do it bag. I put my Iphone and 20 quid in my pockets and go downstairs, everyone's having breakfast, I can't be bother to sit down so I pick up an apple from the bowl and eat it.

"We have to be leaving in 17 minutes and 52 seconds." Gus says, staring at his watch.

"I'll sit next to you Tess." Tee offers; pouring milk onto her cereal.

"Sure" I say, going to the living room, but I bump into Liam

"Hey Tess, you actually woke up on time."

"Yep, I'll sit next to you on the minibus" I offer

"Alright, but I'm sitting at the back" says Liam, walking to the kitchen, hands in his pockets. I sit down on the sofa, put my feet on the coffee table and turn the TV on, before I can watch anything, everyone heads to the minivan and Gus starts shouting

"We need to go in 6 minutes and 42 seconds!" Gus yells.

"Everyone get in the minivan." Mike says, "Tess set the GPS for me whilst I check the tyre pressure"

"Alright" I sigh, turning off the TV, and going into the minivan, setting it and sitting in between Liam and Tee.

"I hope this doesn't turn out like that time we went to the beach" Tee mutters

"Yeah, Johnny." Liam says, emphasising Johnny's name

"What happened?" I asked

"Well, we were planning on going to the beach earlier in the holidays, but Johnny messed it up. Since he didn't want to go, he set the GPS wrong and he gave Mike the wrong petrol for the minibus, so it wouldn't go anywhere." Tee answers,

"Oh" I say, not knowing what else to say, so I just play Temple Run for like an hour, until I get a text

_I bet I can beat your high score. _It says, from Liam

"Fine, go ahead" I say, handing him my phone, "But there's no point in texting."

"Why not?" Liam asks, raisng an eyebrow, then playing Temple Run on my phone. After what seems like ages, he hands me back my phone.

"Told ya" Liam says, grinning, since he beat me high score

""We're going to be stopping to get something to eat!" Mike yells

"Please don't tell me that we're going back to that place we went last time"

" 'Fraid so." Mike says.

"That guy there hated us"

Once we stop and go in, there's this man who seems to be in his 40s, with brown hair and a beer belly, warily glaring at us, and surprised when he see me.

"Sorry, you can't come in here, especially not with any new hoodlums" he says, in a stuck up manner, looking at me.

"Um excuse me, but who do you think you are?!" I snapped at him loudly, making him flinch

"It's alright Tess-" Mike says, putting his hand on my shoulder

"No, it isn't!" I say, interrupting him, "This prick's just called us all hoodlums, and stereotyped us all!"

"I'm to have to ask you to leave if you use that sort of language towards me" The man says, I just scoff at him.

"You're going to ask up to leave because you insulted us? You realised you just called me a hoodlum, and I could easily report that." I say,

"You wouldn't" He replies, with a scowl on his face

"Oh I would" I say, taking a step toward him, and smirking, "I'm not a violent person, but that could change." I say, still with a smirk, but quieter, and the man's scowl crumples, then I walk off to the sweet store.

"Nicely done Tess" Electra says, standing next to me, "Didn't think you'd do that"

"Yeah, in care you have to intimidate them if you don't want to get beat up or get your stuff nicked."

"You went to Burnywood?" Electra asks, shocked

"Yeah, It was shit, honestly, I'm only scary when I need to be, it's like the wilderness in there, every man for themselves" I say, picking up a packet of Haribo and a KitKat, "Plus, if I pull the right face, my purple eyes, help scare people." I joke, Electra laughs at the last part.

"Y'know at first, I thought you were either a goody two shoes, or acting like I did when I first came to the Dumping ground."

"Is that a good thing or a bad thing?" I ask her,

"Neither, but you're actually pretty cool" she says "Don't tell people I said that, they'll think I'm soft"

"Alright" I say, going to the self-service machine, and paying.

"We should get back to the minivan" I say, and we make out way to the car park. I can't see anyone, they must have gotten in before us. We walk past the man I yelled at earlier, and he stares at me, and just to scare him off that little bit extra, I tilt my head down, and glare back, before walking out into the car park, and looking around.

"Can you see them?" Electra asks me

"Nope"

"Shit, don't tell me…"

"Yep… They forgot us". I say


	7. First Kiss

"_Can you see them?" Electra asks me_

"_Nope"_

"_Shit, don't tell me…"_

"_Yep… They forgot us". I say_

"What are we going to do now?" Electra sighed, in frustration. I picked my phone out of my pocket and called Liam. It rang for what seemed like forever, until he finally picked up the phone

"Hey-" Liam starts to say, until he's interrupted by me.

"Where the fuck are you guys, If you hadn't noticed, we're still here!" I tried to say calmly.

"Alright, we're already on our way, Gus did the register, see ya"

"Just hurry up," I say, hanging up. "They're on their way." I said to Electra.

"Alright," said Electra, as she played with her hair

"Ok." I say laughing. We just stand there, waiting for a further half hour, until the minibus pulls up. We climb in, back into our seats,

"Sorry we forgot ya guys." said Liam

"It's no problem" I say, clipping in the seatbelt. "By the way why did you guys go?"

"Y'know that guy ya yelled at? The bastard went and kicked us out, I guess he didn't see ya " replies Liam.

I spend ages looking out of the window, and playing angry birds, then temple run, trying to beat Liam's high score. Once we had arrived and gotten our wristbands we had to get changed. I went into the changing cubicle, and changed out of my clothes, since I was wearing my costume underneath. I looked at the scar on my lower back from the mirror, and wished my hair went lower than just below my shoulder blades. I tied the straps of the top behind my neck, and made it in a bow. Then I put my clothes in my bag, and walked out to the lockers. I put my bag in the locker and went to the actual waterpark. I see that Liam, Electra, Frank and Rick are already there. Liam's wearing military print trunks, Electra's wearing a blue bikini, Franks wearing red trunks, and Rick's wearing black trunks. Liam's face goes red when he sees me.

"Don't laugh at me!" I say, biting my lip.

"I won't" Liam says, staring at me, obviously staring at my chest

"Liam… Liam! My eyes are up here" I say, tempted to hit him.

"Well, we were about to go on some rides, but we were waiting for ya, so come on!" Liam says, grabbing my wrist, and going off towards the stairs,

"Don't we need those inflatable rings?" I ask Liam, who still hasn't let go of my wrist.

"Oh yeah!" Liam says, once we've walked past a pile of them. We got back and everyone grabs one, Liam grabs 2.

"I've got yours don't worry" Liam says, with his signature grin, which makes my cheeks feel like they're burning, pretty ironic as we're in a water park. We get to the top of the stairs, and Liam lets go of my hand. Electra, goes down first, followed by Frank, then Liam, then me, and Rick goes down last. Since I was screaming, I think water got down my throat and I'm coughing my head off.

"You ok?" Frank asks me

"Yeah it's nothing"

"I'm picking the next ride" Electra says, pointing towards a ride that goes in about 5 circles and then drops into a pool.

"Come on then, unless you're scared?" I say, smirking

"No way, come on" Frank says, so we pick up the rings and we all get to the queue, which is taking forever, but near the front we see Tyler, Johnny, Carmen, Lily, Tee, Gus and Harry. We jump the queue, and ignore the angry protests of the people we cut in front of.

"Hey" I say, waving.

"Hey!" Carmen says, grinning as she and Lily, get on the ride , I guess it goes in pairs,

"Tess I'll go on the ride with ya" Liam offers

"Sure" I say. I'm guessing that Tyler's going with Johnny, Gus is going with Harry, Rick is going with Frank, Leaving Electra and Tee. When we get on, Liam stares at the ride

"Having second thoughts?" I ask him

"N-Nope!" Liam says,

"Don't worry it'll be fine!" I say, giving him a reassuring smile, he nervously smiles back. A few moments after we get on, we let go of the bars and go down the ride, screaming our heads off, then screaming more when it drops us into the pool, and I fell out of the rings.

"I'm guessing you fell out too?" I say, since Liam's holding on to 2 rings

"Yep, but I got mine, and I found this one, I say guessing it was yours since I saw you underwater."

"Thanks, wanna get out the pool?"

"Yep." Liam says, popping the P. We climb out and see everyone else waiting for us.

"Come on, we're going to the heated pool." Rick says. We drop the rings and follow them. We stay in the same place for about an hour, until we need to go. I quickly get into the changing cubicle, just so I can get out of this swimsuit. I dry myself and get changed, and then I go and meet Mike, Gina, and Electra. We wait for everyone else to get changed and get back into the minivan. This time I sit in the corner next to Liam. I spend about half an hour gazing out of the window, and then I feel suddenly drowsy, and start dozing off to sleep

I awoke a few hours later in a daze, realising that Liam's giving me a piggyback ride.

"Oh your finally awake now are ya!" Liam says, putting me down outside the Dumping Ground.

"At least we're home now."

" And you won't be falling asleep on my lap."

"Shut up!" I say, "I was just feeling sleepy; you could've just woken me up!" I say.

"Well, I could've" Liam says, raising my chin, "But I didn't mind looking at ya pretty face." He continues, which makes me start blushing. "Ya know, I love it when you blush" He says, and before I can say anything, he gently puts his lips on mine and kisses me, putting his arms around my waist. His lips feel like pure adrenaline, and my heart was beating so fast I thought I would have a heart attack. Once we pulled away, Liam grinned at me, and yawned.

"Well, now I know how tired you felt, I'm gonna go to bed, see ya" Liam says, winking at me, leaving me staring there in shock, as five words became practically imprinted in my mind

"That was my first kiss."


	8. Groceries

I woke up the next morning at about 11 in the morning. I pulled the duvet off of me and realising that I slept in the T-shirt I wore yesterday. I showered, and changed into the same oversized grey T-Shirt, with the Rolling Stones, and black leggings, and made my way downstairs to the living room. I noticed that Frank, Rick, and Liam were playing pool, and the moment I look at Liam, I remember yesterday. Honestly, I don't really mind, I think I was half-hoping for that to happen, but now my feelings for him have gone into tenfold. I bring myself back to reality and take a seat on the sofa next to Carmen

"Hey Carmen, what ya watching?" I ask her

"Austin and Ally" she replies

"I love that show!" I say, putting my feet on the coffee table. "They remind me of some of people in my school"

"I thought you were moving schools?"

"I'm not, I go to this boarding school, it's called The Rosewood Grace Academy, on a scholarship called the STAR programme"

"Cool!"

"But I'm boarding on weekdays, since it's an hour away on the train"

"Not so cool" Carmen says, and I let out a little laugh, more of a giggle. We watch the rest of the show, with Tee and Lily, until Gina walks into the living room, probably with an announcement to make.

"Kids!" Gina yells, to everyone's attention, "Since school starts in a week, EVERYONE'S going uniform shopping, be ready in half an hour" Everyone groans, not me since I still have a month to go

"Gina, my uniform still fits" Liam complains

"Then you'll have to help me get the groceries"

"I'm good" Liam says

"Gina, I don't need a uniform yet" I point out

"Then you'll need to help me get the groceries, yeah"

"Alright"

"I'll come with" Liam says, changing his mind, then looking at me and smiling. I go to my room, put on my purple Dr. Martens, put on some black feather earrings, and a black shamballa, then go downstairs, and out of the car. I can faintly hear Gus' shouting, from inside. I climb into the car, which Liam's already in.

"Tess?"

"Yeah?" I say, putting my feet on the front seat, Liam does the same

" 'ow many guys have you gone out with" Liam asks me

"Nobody…" I say quietly, feeling embarrassed. "At all of my other care homes, boys were too much trouble than what they were worth, plus most of them looked like a fish." I admitted, Liam laughed when I mentioned the last part, making me feel more at ease.

" 'ow many guys 'ave ya kissed?"

"Once again, nobody. For the same reason."

"Oh, sorry for stealing your first kiss, you're a good kisser though"

"…Thanks…" I say, and suddenly my knees became the most interesting thing in the world.

"By the way, Gina's on her way, but she was talking to someone on the phone when I went into the car. Basically I'm telling you we're going to be here for a while." Liam says, making me laugh "You have a cute laugh" Liam says, shocking me with a compliment

"Thanks… again" I say, looking up at him and smiling,

"Alright, sorry about the wait, we're going now, yeah?" Gina says, starting the car, and driving off, the other guys haven't even left yet. After a while of gazing out of the window, we arrive, and I get out and put my phone in my shoe, since I don't have any pockets.

"Sorry Tess, Mike needs help managing the kids, can I trust you to do the shopping?"

"Yeah sure." I say, Gina hands me a folded list and £300.

"Sorry about this, see you in an hour, yeah?"

"All right"

"Gina let me go with her, I can't stand uniform shoppin'" Liam moans

"Fine" Gina says, with a hint of agitation in her voice, Liam gets out of the car and Gina drives off.

"Alright can you get me a trolley?" I ask him

"Alright" Liam says, and a few moments later, he returns with a massive trolley that goes above my waist

"Shit that goes high up on me" I say,

"That's because you're short"

"Am not! I'm 5"3!"

"Still short to me, I'm nearly 6ft!" Liam boasts

I sighed in frustration, "Well let's get this over with" I say, but we spend most of the time just pissing about. Well, until the manager of the supermarket goes and tells us off, then asks us to stop.

"Shit, we've got 15 minutes; I don't really want to put up with Gina's yelling."

"Then what do we do?" I ask Liam

"Simple" He says, lifting me up into the trolley

"Alright! I'm not that short!" I object.

"Give me the list," Liam says "Then you'll pick them from the aisle" He continues, pushing the trolley

"But why do I have to be standing in the trolley?"

"Because, the reactions are priceless" He replies, and I look around, and burst out laughing at the faces people are pulling at us. By the time we had gotten everything, I could barely get out, Liam lifted me out again, and we got to the checkout and paid

"Hey Tess!" The girl at the checkout says, I look up at her, wondering how she knows my name, she had blue eyes, shoulder length red hair, and a nose piercing

"Hi Keira, I didn't know you worked here" I say

"Yeah I'm staying with my mum for the summer. Is this your boyfriend?" Keira asks, gesturing to Liam.

"No, he's a friend, at my new care home" I say, "Keira, this is Liam, Liam this is Keira, she's in my form."

"Oh, he seems to suit you" She says, possibly suggesting that we should go out. "Well that's "£278.50" I hand her the notes that Gina gave me, and she gives me my change.

"Well that worked out didn't it?" Liam says

"I guess"

"Ya guess?" Liam says, putting me in a headlock,

"Oi piss off!"

"Only until you apologise" He says, messing up my hair

"OK, OK, Sorry!" I yell, and he instantly lets go, but then burst out laughing.

"You messed up my hair didn't you?!" I ask, and he nods, then he gets a black beanie hat out of the pocket of his hoody, and hands it to me,

"How do I look?" I ask him once I've put it on, carefully placing it near the back of my head

"Good" Liam replies, and as he says that, Gina pulls over. We load the bags into her car and get in.

"How did you manage Tess?" Gina asks

"Fine" I say, handing her the change and the receipt, then attempting to pick my phone out of my shoe, before giving up and taking my shoes off, fishing it out and putting my shoe back on, I glance over at Liam who's also on his phone, we've both got the same Iphone. I play apps and games until we get home. When we arrive I go to my room, lie on my bed and just stare at the ceiling, with about a million thoughts going through my head.


	9. All In a Day's Work

**:D Thanks to:**

** – hands donut**

**Linneagb- Hands donut**

**Cookie05- Hands donut**

I got bored of staring at the ceiling eventually so I got my guitar, and tune it, just before I start playing, I hear a loud knock on my door

"Who is it?" I ask loudly

"Liam"

"Come in" I sighed,

"Hold on, how many instruments do you play?" Liam asked, when he sees my guitar

"17, 16 if you don't count singing"

"Which are?"

"Piano, Accoustic Guitar, Violin, Electric Guitar, Keyboard, Trombone, Drums, Saxophone, Flute, Trumpet, French Horn, Harp, Bass Guitar, Cello, Double Bass, Harmonica, and singing, if that counts. Oh and I used to play the bagpipes"

"Fuckin' hell" Liam says, surprised,

"So that's why you always have so many lessons, I just thought they were for the same few things" Liam admits, "Why not play me something?"

"Like?"

"Anything"

"Fine" I sighed, randomly picking Drive by, it's one of my favourite songs by Train, and I close my eyes, knowing that if I look at Liam, I'll get embarrassed. Taking a deep breath, and picturing that I'm on my own.

On the other side of a street I knew  
Stood a girl that looked like you  
I guess that's déjà vu  
But I thought this can't be true  
'Cause you moved to west LA  
Or New York or Santa Fe  
Or wherever to get away from me

Oh but that one night  
Was more than just right  
I didn't leave you 'cause I was all through  
Oh I was overwhelmed and frankly scared as hell  
Because I really fell for you

Oh I swear to you  
I'll be there for you  
This is not a drive by  
Just a shy guy looking for a two-ply  
Hefty bag to hold my love  
When you move me everything is groovy  
They don't like it sue me  
Mmm the way you do me  
Oh I swear to you  
I'll be there for you  
This is not a drive by

On the upside of a downward spiral  
My love for you went viral  
And I loved you every mile you drove away  
But now here you are again  
So let's skip the "how you been"  
And get down to the "more than friends" at last

Oh but that one night  
Is still the highlight  
I didn't need you until I came to  
And I was overwhelmed and frankly scared as hell  
Because I really fell for you

Oh I swear to you  
I'll be there for you  
This is not a drive by  
Just a shy guy looking for a two-ply  
Hefty bag to hold my love  
When you move me everything is groovy  
They don't like it sue me  
Mmm the way you do me  
Oh I swear to you  
I'll be there for you  
This is not a drive by

Please believe that when I leave  
There's nothing up my sleeve but love for you  
And a little time to get my head together too

On the other side of a street I knew  
Stood a girl that looked like you  
I guess that's déjà vu  
But I thought this can't be true  
'Cause

Oh I swear to you  
I'll be there for you  
This is not a drive by  
Just a shy guy looking for a two-ply  
Hefty bag to hold my love  
When you move me everything is groovy  
They don't like it sue me  
Mmm the way you do me  
Oh I swear to you  
I'll be there for you  
This is not a drive by

When I'm done, I open my eyes, Liam's closed his.

"Well now you've heard me sing, you can stop bothering me"

"You're a really good singer Tess" Liam says, everyone says that when I sing, but when I hear those words from him, in a weird way, I feel a sense of accomplishment.

"Thanks. But don't go expecting me to go singing all the time though"

"Fine" Liam says, grinning, then taking a seat on my bed, right in front of me. "Tess?" He asked, his grin quickly faded

"Yeah?"

"I know this is coming from nowhere, but where did that scar on your lower back come from?"

"You saw it when we went to the water park didn't you?" I asked quietly, He nodded, "I wish my hair was longer" I sighed, Liam laughed a bit, which put me at ease, " I've had it for so long that I can't remember."

"I had one too, on my forearm. It went away, though, I guess you weren't so lucky" Liam remarks

"Y'know, sometimes I wonder what goes through your head" I mutter,

"And what is that supposed to mean?" Liam asks me sarcastically, what is it with him and sarcasm?

"Sometimes, you're funny as hell, sometimes annoying as hell." I say, smirking.

"Because you're interesting, and this way I get to find out more about you." Liam says, topping it off with his signature grin.

"Honestly, you're such a weird mate sometimes" I say, looking at him

"Mate?" He asks, blushing

"Yeah, we're friends, aren't we?" I say, and Liam smirks at me, and starts inching closer to my face, I can feel my heart beating so violently like it's beating out of my chest. For a split second I thought he was going to kiss me, as he leaned in, and as our lips almost touched, but as I closed my eyes, I heard a knocking on the door. Liam jumped up in surprise.

"Come in!" I say, and Mike opens the door

"Hey Tess, wait why is Liam in your room?"

"Um, in the car I accidentally picked up his phone, since we have the same phone."

"Well anyway, we've just found out some new which I think you'll be glad to hear" Mike says, as Liam leaves my room, so much for that kiss.

"What? What is it? Is it about my family?!" I ask, excitedly

"We've just found out, that you have a sister, her name's Skyler Rose"

**This was a filler chapter, I swear the ones after this should be better :3**

**Thanks for reading!**

**Please review!**


	10. Meeting My Sister

**Load of thanks to for reviewing every chapter :D**

**Also thanks to everyone else :D**

I just stare at Mike, my jaws dropped, unable to take in the information. All those years, I spent yelling at care workers, going on at them about my family. Nothing. But then, with Mike, after only 2 weeks, with no yelling whatsoever actually finds someone in my family. And to think, I was only just starting to get used to having no-one, being a Dustbin Baby.

"Tess? Earth to Tess?" Mike says, waving his hand front of my face, to try and see if I'm paying attention

"Yeah?" I replied, snapping out my daydreams

"We've planned for her to meet you today, at 5, Tracy will need to come with you for safety"

"5?! It's half 3 now! Why didn't you tell me earlier?"

"Well, I was going to tell you tomorrow, but you had gone straight to bed."

"True."

"By the way, she's 16, and she lives with her dad"

"Her, d-d-dad?!" I stuttered, shocked about whether I could find my dad at the same time.

"Yes, but it's unknown about whether that man is your dad or not." Mike informs me.

"Ok," I say, and Mike shuts the door. I walk out of my room, scraping my hair into a ponytail. I didn't know how to react, even though I've pictured this situation hundreds of times, I just got used to the fact that that was never going to happen. I go have another shower, change back into my clothes, put some perfume on, and go downstairs, Liam crashes into me at the stairs, and knocks me over

"Sorry Tess!" Liam says, scrambling back to his feet and running off, Electra soon follows, but can't catch up

"Liam! Give me back my diary!" Electra screeches, running off after me. I signed and dusted myself off, then made my way to the living room, where everyone's bursting out laughing. Tyler was even rolling on the floor, clutching his stomach

"Oh my god Tess you missed it, Liam was reading Electra's diary, and she went ballistic" Tyler says, between laughter.

"Yeah I saw Electra chasing after Liam." I mutter.

"But seriously, you just wouldn't think she'd be the type of person who'd write poetry in their diary, I mean who does that?" Carmen says, bursting into laughter

"Alright that sounds pretty funny" I say, letting out a little laugh, before getting bored of everyone, and making my way up the stairs. I strolled along the corridor, before turning back to see Electra banging on Liam's door, I guess he barricaded himself there, with her diary. After pondering about it for a bit, I decided to stay out of it and continued to my room, and read a magazine for half an hour, until Tracy starts calling me, saying we need to go. I grab my phone from my desk, and walk down the stairs, Electra's given up banging on Liam's door, I wonder if she got her diary. I walk down the stairs, pick my jacket off of the sofa, and get into Tracy's car. I can hear Gina's screaming from outside, it's funny how every time we go outside I can hear someone's shouting. I get bored in the car and listen to music until we get there.

"I'm meeting her at a café? We'll it's a good thing I didn't eat!" I joked, before walking inside. I looked around, seeing tons of people, chattering to one another, until I saw a girl looking around, she's on her own, she looks a lot like me, and she's wearing a blue floral dress, a black biker jacket and black studded flats, she has brown eyes, like mine but she has darker skin than mine, and she left her black hair down. I nervously walk up to her, convinced that she's my sister, I'm nervous because if she isn't my sister, I'll look like a proper twat.

"Skler, is that you?" I ask the girl, practically choking the words out

"Yeah, I can't believe how much you look like mum!" Skler says, pulling me into a hug, before taking a seat in front of her

"So how have you been?" I asked Skyler

"Well, It's been getting easier?"

"What happened?"

"Well… Mum died… she committed suicide and died of a drug overdose." Skler said, lowering her tone. My heart sank when she said that, "She told me about you and your brother."

"I have a brother?!" I said, utterly shocked

"Yeah, she wrote a note, it said that the guilt had finally overwhelmed her, and she told me I have a half-brother and sister, both twins, but she said that she abandoned him outside the nearest care home"

"Yet I get left in a bin…" I muttered to myself, feeling a hint of jealousy. "By the way, do you have any idea about who my dad is? I-Is he alive"

"Yes, he is. His name's Blake Morgan, and he lives in Oxford Street. Sorry but that's all I know." Skyler says, in an apologetic tone.

"That's fine. So I have a twin brother?"

"Yeah, wait how much do you really know about yourself?"

"Not much…" I sighed, "Well… my name's Tessa Evitt Riley, and I'm at least African by three quarters, and now I know my dad's name, that I have an older sister and a twin brother." I say "I wish I could've met Mum…" I muttered quietly to myself. "Well do you want anything?" I asked her, eager to change the subject.

"Um.. I'll just get a cappuccino" Skyler replies, as I start to stand up and queue. As I walk past I see Tracy, trying to pretend she's some stranger,

"Why are you trying to hide and failing?" I ask Tracy, who's realised that the jig is up.

"I just didn't want to make it seem awkward for you, so I just thought I'd be out of the way"

"You know I don't really mind, it's just funny!" I say, laughing, Tracy smiles a bit, before I go to the queue and get Skyler's cappuccino, and a hot chocolate for me. By the time I've paid for them and made my way over to Skyler, I see Tracy and Skyler talking like there's no tomorrow. I pull up a chair, drag it to the side and sit down, and waited for them to finish talking.

"So Skyler, where do you live now?" Tracy asks

"With my dad." Skler replied, sipping her cappuccino

"Oh! Look at the time! We need to be going now!" Tracy says, checking her phone, I check my phone, its 6 o'clock. "I promised Mike that we'd be home by half 6." I quickly swapped numbers with Skyler and caught up with Tracy in her car, on the car ride home I listened to music to pass the time until we got back to Elm Tree, as soon as I get in everyone's eating dinner.

"Hi Tess, do you want some?" Mike asks me, pouring curry onto a plate full of rice.

"Nah, not hungry." I reply, running up the stairs to my room. I changed into purple sweatpants, a black oversized t-shirt, and took off all my jewellery. I checked my hair and realised that the purple tips were fading out, I sighed, dug though my wardrobe, and picked out one of my dye and bleaching kits, shampoo, and conditioner that keeps the colour for as long as possible, then heading to the bathroom, and locking the door. About an hour later, I'd finished and gotten out; scraping my hair into a ponytail once it was dry. I went to the kitchen and made myself some tea, since I was thirsty. Then I took it to my room, and started reading a magazine, when Liam walked into my room.

"It's called knocking" I say, not looking up.

"Yeah sorry about that, did you dye ya hair?" He asked

"Well duh!" I say, looking up. Liam picks up my tea and takes a sip

"Oi! Get your own." I objected.

"Sorry (!)" Liam says, sarcastically. I raise an eyebrow, "By the way the fair's in town tomorrow, do ya wanna go?"

"Sure, sounds fun." I say, smiling at him, with he returns with a massive grin.

"Well g'night Tess" Liam says, making his way out of my room

"Night Liam" I reply, getting under the covers, and eventually drifting off to sleep.

**Thanks for reading and REVIEW! :P**


	11. Rollercoaster Ride

I woke up at about 9.30, Gus was shouting since everyone was talking during his piano practice. I put my pillow over my ears, and tried to block out the noise and get back to sleep. Since I couldn't, I threw the covers over me, sighing in annoyance, and went downstairs. Liam, Tyler, Harry, Tee and Rick were all also in their pyjamas. I checked the clock in the living room and it said it was 10 exactly.

"Breakfast!" Gina bellowed, but somewhat quieter than usual, I took a seat next to Rick and Liam, There were 4 plates completely stacked with pancakes. I took 3 from a pile and poured syrup over them.

"The fair's in town today, Tess do you wanna come? With Me, Liam and Electra?" Rick asks me, whilst cramming a whole pancake into his mouth

"Sure, by the way you've got syrup on your lip" I point out to him, he wipes his mouth almost immediately after."

"Tess, when do you start school?" Gus asks me, carrying his notebook

"3 weeks after everyone else." I reply

"Why are you in care?" Gus asks again. The dreaded question.

"Do I really have to say?" I ask, hoping that I could avoid answering

"Yes"

"Can I write it in your notebook then, so I don't have to say out loud?"

"Fine" Gus says, passing his notebook across the table, it's on a double page named Tessa Evitt Riley, I quickly flicked through and found that it was like that for everyone else. I read what he had written about me

_Tessa Evitt Riley_

_Likes the colour purple_

_Has purple tips on her hair_

_Wears purple coloured contacts_

_Dark Skin_

_Plays 17 instruments_

_Doesn't know her birthday_

_Always wakes up late_

_Very Loud_

I laughed a bit at the last two, and then I wrote "Was abandoned at birth in a dustbin" at the bottom, but my handwriting isn't as neat as his. I handed Gus back his notebook, and when up the stairs to the bathroom. I had a shower, washed my hair so it smelt like apples, and got dry. My hair wasn't dry so I wrapped another towel round my head and went to my room. I got changed into purple high waisted shorts, a black Nirvana t-shirt, a blue denim shirt with a studded collar, and black Dr. Martens. By the time my hair was dry so I unwrapped the towel and put it in the laundry bin, them went back into my room, put on my purple shamballa and a diamante cross necklace, then got £20 out of my purse and my Iphone, and put them in my pockets, I've always hated carrying bags. When I went downstairs, I realised that everyone else was still getting ready, as I heard that Carmen, Lily, Tee, Tyler, Johnny and Gus were going in a group. I crashed out on the sofa, and flicked the channel to America's Next Top Model, where two girls were having a catfight, it was just getting more interesting when someone changed it to MOTD Kickabout.

"Oi! I was watching that!" I yelled, looking back to see Liam standing behind me, clutching the remote. I snatched it back and changed the channel again.

"Why are girls obsessed with America's Next Top Model?" Liam asks, taking a seat next to me

"Because it's entertaining to see bitchy girls fail at modelling." I answer bluntly, making Liam laugh. After it ends Electra and Rick are ready, and we all leave to take the bus, and sit at the very back of the top deck. I was sitting between Liam and Rick, Rick was sitting next to Electra.

"Have you been to a fair before?" Liam asks me, putting his feet up on the seat behind him.

"Nope, there weren't any near my last care homes, and at Burnywood they wouldn't let you go. I've been to amusement parks, aren't they like the same though?" I answered, also putting my feet up

"Pretty much, except there aren't any rollercoasters." Liam remarks, and the rest of the bus journey was Electra and Rick flirting, but I'll spare you the details. Once we got off, I was shocked at how many people were there, and also about how bad some people looked. I saw some fat girl with too much fake tan, wearing a crop top and a pair of micro shorts!

"Come on!" Liam says, grabbing my hand so we don't get lost.

"Hey, let's go on that ride," Rick suggests, picking out a ride that called Storm, which is like a Ferris wheel, except there's only 8 seats per ride, 4 on each end, and it's faster

"Sure" I say, smiling at him, perfect as there are 4 of us.

"I'll sit next to ya Tess, Electra and Rick seem to be getting cosy!" Liam offered, winking at me.

"Alright!" I say, jokily winking back. After tons of queuing we got on the ride, and it took us so high that we could just about see the Dumping Ground

"Everyone looks like ants from here!" Liam yelled, laughing.

"You nervous?"

"Me? Nervous? Yeah right!" Liam jokes, and as he said that, the ride swung us round in circles, and Liam and I let out deafening screams. Once the ride was over and we'd finished screaming, we got down, we got caught in a crowd full of people, and I lost Rick and Electra. I thought I had lost Liam, until I realised that Liam was right in front of me. I gripped his hand tightly so I didn't get lost, because if I got lost on my own I highly doubt I'd find my way home. Liam looked back at me, grinned and blushes at the same time.

"I think we lost Rick and Electra." I said

"Oh well, let's go on a few more rides, then we'll look for them" said Liam.

"Alright, Lets go on that one!" I said, pointing to a ride almost as tall as the last one, called Air, but it's got a ball on one end, and the other spins you around.

"The Queue is massive! Let's go on the Bodyrock then that one"

"Fine" I sighed. Looking at the people currently going on the ride, it spins round in circles, like Storm, but smaller, and it sometimes stops halfway through the air, and going the other way. After the ride's finished we get on and wait for it to start, it gets full pretty quickly.

"The seat feels sticky," Liam says out of the blue, which makes me laugh as it's so random. The ride finally starts, and it's more fun that I thought it would be, except the rides have given me a headache. When we get off we go back to the queue, but it's even longer.

"Fuck it, let's get some food." I say, walking to the cotton candy machine.

"I'll pay." Liam offered

"Yay!" I say, doing a little victory dance, making Liam laugh

"2 canyfloss sticks" says Liam, and the man there hands him the sticks covered in candyfloss. Liam pays and hands me one.

"Thanks, do you wanna look for Rick and Electra?"

"Alright," said Liam. We walked around for ages, until we finally found Rick and Electra. I actually wasn't surprised to see Rick and Electra practically sucking each other's faces off. The thing that did surprise me was how they didn't even break for air. It was like they were swimming, but not coming up for air.

"Are ya jealous?" Liam asked sarcastically.

"No, I just don't get how they can hold their breath for so long." I replied

"Well if ya can't beat em', join em'" Liam says, lifting my chin, so I can take a good look in his warm, chocolate brown eyes, before he closed them, and leaned forward. I closed my eyes and he placed his lips on mine, and I kissed back. After a while we pulled away at the same time. Rick and Electra eventually realised that we were waiting for them. On the bus back home I sat next to Liam, Rick and Electra were behind us.

"Tess, what's it like kissing me?" He asks, whispering into my ear.

"I don't know why you need to know, but it's like… a rollercoaster ride"

**Thanks for reading!**

**Please review, comments and ideas are really appreciated! :3**


	12. Off to Oxford Street

**A/N: Sorry I forgot to mention, it doesn't make any sense that Gus would let Tess write in his notebooks, but i put that for later on in the story.**

**Thanks to all reviewers and followers!**

The next day, I woke up, with a plan. Because now, I decided, I was going to find my dad. I got out of my bed, had a long shower, and let the water run down me as I pictured what could happen in my head. I got dry, and changed into black leggings, and a denim shirt. Inside the shirt was my new grey T-shirt with purple writing, with the caption "F**k Swag get Some Gangnam Style" and a picture of PSY underneath. I put on my purple shamballa, purple Dr. Martens and packed a small "Just Do It" rucksack. I packed my phone, around £60, my phone charger, and a notebook. So I don't check the same place twice.

I went downstairs to the living room, and checked to see if anyone was on it.

"What are you all dressed up for, it's only 9.00" Carmen asked

"Don't tell anyone this, but I'm going to look for my real dad." I said, but as soon as the words came out, I realised that I needed to get to Oxford Street A.S.A.P as there was no way, she would keep it a secret. Carmen got off the computer and went back upstairs.

Nobody was, so I quickly got on and typed up "Blake Morgan" and hoped that I'd get any results. I managed to get 30, all relating to Sport Direct. I clicked the link, which went to the management team. I scrolled through name after name until I came across his name. After reading through everything, I noticed that he was managing a branch in Oxford Street, London. I looked up the quickest way there. I had to take a bus, a train, then a bus, then another train. I checked the time, and realised that it was only 8.00, early enough for me to leave today. But I couldn't walk out the door that early, they'd know something was up. I had to get out though the window. I slung the rucksack on my shoulder, went to my room, and looked down, trying to figure out how I was going to get down. I'd just started to make my way down, until I hear a very familiar cockney twang

"Well, what ave we got 'ere?" He asked,

"I'm practicing my rock climbing!" I said, sarcastically

"You're going to look for your dad, you forgot to close your tabs" Liam remarked. How the hell did I manage to forget?

"See ya, don't snitch on me." I said, as I climbed down to the top.

"Let me come with ya" He called from the window.

"Fine! Just hurry up," I sighed. After about 5 minutes, Liam was climbing down the window, much quicker than I was, he's probably done this way more times than I have.

"Alright, so we're going to Oxford Street?" asked Liam, with his hands in his pockets.

"Yep, come on, or we'll miss the bus!" I say, walking a bit faster, so Liam has to catch up. On the bus, We sit at the front, the top deck is empty.

"So, when did you find out about your dad?" asks Liam, eager to make conversation.

"When I met my half-sister."

"What? Ya never told me this!"

"That's because you had barricaded yourself in your room with Electra's Diary." I reminded him.

"Oh yeah!" Liam said, chuckling to himself. "I've got an Idea, do ya have Jetpack Joyride on ya phone?"

"Yeah, why?"

"Let's start at the same time, and whoever has the most points win."

"Alright" I say, and we start at the same time, but we keep playing for so long, that when we need to get off the bus, we're still playing, and walking around. After ages, Liam loses.

"Yay!" I say, doing a little victory dance. "We need to hurry up if we don't wanna miss the train."

At Elm Tree House

3rd Person

"Gus have you seen Tess and Liam" Mike asked, nervously.

"No, the last time I saw them was at 10.00 last night when they got back from the fair."

"I'm going to check their rooms" said Mike, he hadn't seen or heard from them since yesterday, and despite the fact that Tess always wakes up late, she wouldn't still be in bed by 3. When Mike checked Liam's room, the window was open, and no-body was there. He anxiously checked Tess' room, to find that again, no-one was there, and the window was open. Had they? Had they ran away? Mike thought, Thy probably went to town, He said in his head, assuring himself

Tess and Liam

"I hate walking!" I sighed, in frustration "Liam gimme a piggyback ride." I asks, we'd been so busy playing Jetpack Joyride, that we got off 3 stops late. "Pwweease?" I asked in a childish voice

"Fine" He said, bending down so I could hop on. He wasn't on his knees yet, but the depressing thing was that he was still taller than me. I hopped on and he kept walking.

"Y'know, I'm gonna call ya Titch." He remarked

"Because I'm short?"

"Bingo"

"Thanks!" I yell sarcastically

"No problem, Titch" Liam replied, emphasising my new nickname. Liam practically carried me all the way to the train station, and I wondered if Mike and Gina had realised we were missing, and if Carmen had snitched on us. I put those thoughts to the back of my head as I paid for the train ticket, and Liam paid for his

"Thanks Liam, y'know you don't have to do this."

"Yeah, but I want ta, so in return, tell me all about ya"

"Like?"

"All you know about yaself" He said, as we got on the train

"Well, I'm 14/15, remember I don't know my age or birthday, I go to an academy on a music scholarship, I'm ttechnically a musical prodigy, my favourite colour is of course purple, and I am on a train with a boy I met 2 weeks ago to find my dad." I answer as the train starts to move. We say nothing for a while, until I start to feel sleepy, and fall asleep on Liam's shoulder.

Elm Tree House

3rd Person again

Mike was getting more and more convinced by the second that Tess and Liam had run away. But where to? Mike stood up and told Gina to call the kids, once they had gathered, Mike could hear indistinct chattering,

"Kids, has anyone seen Tessa and Liam?" Mike askes, half hoping someone would just say "" Oh, they went to town" or something. But the reply were scatters of no's.

"Then that can only mean one thing." Mike said to Gina, who was also anxious

"They've ran away"


	13. Snitch

This is a really, really small chapter, so I'm uploading another one today :D because I'm that awesome

Xox

On the train

Liam's POV.

Me and Tess were on the train, we hadn't even been there for an 'our but Tess was asleep already, on my shoulder. Her black hair which she always dip-dyed purple, was in her face. I brushed it out of the way. She moved her head, and her head fell on my lap. I stared at her for a bit, until looking away since I probably looked like a stalker. After about an hour of playing Doodle Jump on my phone, I checked up on Tess and found that she was still sleeping, I was bored so I wanted ta wake her up. I gently pressed my lips on hers, to see if she would wake up. She opened her eyes in shock, before closing them, and kissing back. Her arms snaked round my neck, as mine snaked round her waist. Kissing her felt like fireworks, in a way I was glad I'm the only guy she's kissed.

"Hey, what was that for?"

"Just felt like it" I answered. She sighed, and closed her eyes again, before getting her phone out, with her head still placed on my lap.

At Elm Tree House

Do you know where Tess and Liam are, Carmen? Lily asked, in curiousity

"NO! Besides, if they had ran away, it's to take over the world not like they would've gone to Oxford Street or anything!" Carmen said a little bit too loudly, considering that everyone was still in the living room

"Carmen, Is there something you would like to tell us?" Gina asked, suspicious of Carmen

"No… Well… but…. Fine! Tess and Liam went to Oxford Street, since Tess want's to find her dad." Carmen admitted feeling guilty that she'd just snitched on Tess.

"It's nearly 8 now. Driving there will take hours. We'll have to set of first thing in the morning." Mike sighed.

"Can we all go? If we leave really early we can make it a trip!" Tee asks

"Alright then, just get some sleep." Said Tracy, "Mike what do you think?"

"That's fine," said Mike, "Well set off at 8."

The Train again

Tess' POV

I'd been having a really random dream. I'd found my dad, who turned into a giant evil turtle, who tried to take over the world, and then Liam came dressed as a knight, riding a horse, but he fell off, and that's where the dream eneded

"Oi, Titch?" Liam called, I kind of wanted to find out what happened in the dream.

"What?" I asked, drowsily as Liam had just woken me up

"We're here, but the train's stopping here for the night, better get some sleep"

"Then why did you wake me up if I needed to get some sleep? Nevermind that what time is it?" I asked, feeling more awake per second.

"About 9."

"And the trains are staying for the night already? That's strange."

"Yeah it is, but you should sleep anyway"

"Alright, Goodnight Liam" I replied, falling asleep on his lap for the second time today.


	14. Confessions

I woke up the next day at some time in the morning, probably around 9 or 10. My head was on Liam's lap, and his head was on my stomach. I was lying on my back, Liam was slightly tilted. He looked cute when he was sleeping. I got my phone out, but the volume on full, and played Gangnam Style with the phone right next to his right ear, waking him up in shock

"What that for Titch?" he asked me, sitting up.

"I was waking you up. By the way it's 10." I said, checking my phone

We both stood up. My side was killing me. I caught a glimpse of myself in the window, my hair was messed up and my foundation was smudged. I brushed my hair as quickly as I could, and put on some more foundation.

"I still don't get how this bus stayed here for the night at 9, and it's still here by 10." I said, as we both got off the train. My stomach was growling so loud that I was worried that everyone else could hear.

"I'm starving too, wanna look for a café?" Liam offered

"Sure, as we went up the escalator, and up to the busy, crowded city otherwise known as Oxford Street.

"Shit, 'ow are we gonna find ya dad?" said Liam as he looked around.

"Easy, I tracked him, He works at Sports Direct here, problem is Oxford Street is a mile and a half long. We might have to walk for a while. But let's worry about that later, let's go to the chip shop first." I said, walking with Liam

Dumping Ground,

Car Journey

"Are we there yet?" Harry asked

"No." replied Mike

"What about now" He asked again after a while

"No."

"Now?"

"Not yet Harry! Now please stop asking?" Mike answered, getting slightly agitated.

"…Jeff wants to know if we're there yet." Harry asked a fourth time, after putting Jeff's head to his ear.

"Harry… and Jeff.. It's 11.30, the GPS says that we'll be there by 1 or 2." Mike told Harry.

Tess and Liam

Tess' POV

Liam and I were at the nearest fish and chip shop we could find, I got a small fish and chips, whilst Liam just got large chips

"What time is it now?" I asked

"12, Sport's Direct will definitely be open, but how are we going to get to your dad?" answered Liam.

"Umm… I'm just going to have to ask to see the manager" I said, cramming a few chips in my mouth.

"I'll just use my phone to get us to Sports Direct, I can't be arsed to check every store 'ere." Said Liam as he finished the last of his chips. "Shit, it's on the other side of the street." He said as I finished my fish and chips.

"Great," I said sarcastically. "If it's so far away, then let's get a move on." I say, standing up and putting the empty bags in the bin. We walk along Oxford Street for what seems like forever, and I feel tired. I hate walking.

"Why does this street have to take so long?" I sighed

"Does Titch want another piggyback ride?" asked Liam

"Hell yeah!" I said a bit too loudly as I climbed on Liam's back. He walks down Oxford Street, while I almost burst out laughing from the looks I'm getting from people, and the looks Liam's getting from random girls.

Minivan

"How long to go now?" Carmen asked

"Well we're caught in traffic so it's going to be about another hour, now where exactly did Tess go?"

"I can't say, I've already snitched." Said Carmen, dishearteningly.

"Look, I could tell her I checked the browser history, and realised?" said Mike

"Fine, Sports Direct." Carmen said, quietly.

"What?"

"I said Sport's Direct!" Carmen said louder.

"Maybe we should've taken the train." Said Mike

"With this lot? Not a good Idea." Gina pointed out. Electra was yelling at Tyler, Gus was screaming that they were late, and Tyler was throwing spitballs at everyone, Electra was the only person who realized that it was him

Back with Tess and Liam

"There it is!" I say, pointing. It's still a couple stores away, though. Liam puts me down and we walk up to the store.

"This place looks massive!" said Liam, as we stood outside the store.

"I can't believe my dad might be in there." I say, feeling nervous. What if he isn't my dad? What if he is my dad, but he doesn't believe me? What if the website was wrong? What if he actually lives in another country? What if… he's dead? I tried to ignore the thoughts in my head as we went into Sports Direct. The store was massive, as in, you could easily get lost. We walked for what seemed like forever, until we managed to get in front of the manager's office. I was pondering on the thought of taking out my colored contacts, but I thought it would just make more sense to just wear them, he would find out sooner or later

"Thanks Liam, I really owe you one." I said genuinely.

"Well, I know 'ow ya can make it up to me." Said Liam, as he grinned at me.

"Which is?" I asked, raising an eyebrow

"Well… look I know I've only known ya for 2 weeks, but… I really like ya Tess, and I know that I should've told ya before I stole ya first kiss." Said Liam, his face had become tinted with red, as he looked straight into my eyes

"Liam…" I started to say, but as soon as I did I saw a man leave the office. He had dark skin, which was the same as mine. He had brown eyes and black afro hair, which was shaved short, like Kanye West. And his name tag said Blake. It had to be him, if not; this was a waste of time. I nervously walked up to him, suddenly I felt like I was sweating buckets.

"Um.. Excuse me-" I asked the man quietly, as if I was struggling to find my voice.

"Yes can I help you? The man answered back

"I was wondering, is your name Blake Morgan?

"Yes why?"

"Do you know someone called Renee Evitt-Riley?" I asked him, quoting my mum's name.

"Yes?" He answered again, seeming confused.

"I think I'm your daughter." I blurted out, the man who was supposedly my father looked shocked, as his eyes went as wide as saucers.


	15. Dad

"I think I'm your daughter." I blurted out, his eyes went wide. "I'm in care, my mother was Renee Evitt-Riley, I was abandoned as a baby, and so I came here to try and look for you."

"Tess? You've changed so much! Please tell me you're wearing colored contacts!" said Blake, or as I should now call him, Dad.

"Yeah don't worry; my real eye colour is brown." I said, how come we had a lifetime of conversation to catch up on, but we couldn't think of anything to say, a was finally going to ask him why I was abandoned, but I heard a voice yell in my ear

"Tessa Evitt-Riley, You are in BIG TROUBLE!" I heard a voice yell/ whisper. I turned around in shock and saw that ii was Mike. I'm guessing that he brought the rest of the Dumping Ground, as I saw Electra looking at blue sweats and Frank looking at footballs.

"Why?"

"For leaving to Oxford Street without giving any notice whatsoever!"

"But I left a note on my desk." I said. Mike just sighed.

"Fine, but you and Liam are on washing up duty for 3 weeks. And do NOT, pull a stunt like that again"

"Tess, call when you get home." Said my Dad, handing me a piece of paper with his number on it"

"Thanks." I said, putting the number on my phone,

"Well let's go kids!" Mike said, as he escorted Liam and I to the minivan. I sat at the back with Liam, Rick and Frank were in front of us.

"Liam, I never got to say-"

"Don't worry, I know what ya going to say." He replied, cutting my off, with a melancholy look. He thought I had just plain up rejected him. I tried to tell him he was wrong, but he had already put in his earphones and started listening to music, obviously because he didn't want to hear me. I didn't want to make a scene and start shouting in his ear, so I place my earphones in my ears like him, just to pass the time. I've really gone and fucked up now.

"Tess, why did you run away again?" Rick asked my from in front

"Because I had found out where he was." I answered

"Well at least you weren't gone for as long."

"Yeah." I answered, last time I ran away from Burnywood to find my mum. I didn't come back for a month. If only I'd knew. I put my earphones back in and listened to music for another 2 hours. That was the bad thing about central London, there was so much traffic.

"We're stopping off at McDonalds, what do you want Tess?" Mike asked loudly, so I could hear

"6 chicken nuggets, fries and a strawberry milkshake" I shouted back. After ages of everyone trying to say what they wanted at the same time, the person managed to record the order. I feel sorry for them. Imagine having 12 kids yelling different things to you at the exact same time. Once I had got my food, I practically inhaled it, and put the waste in the bag. After ages of listening to music and playing apps on my phone, we had got back to Elm Tree House. It was 8.30 so I showered, since I probably stank, and changed into a leopard print onsie and black bed slippers. I pulled my hair into a ponytail, and went downstairs. Liam was watching Family Guy and sitting on the couch.

"Liam, we need to talk" I said, looking straight into his chocolate brown eyes

"Not really…" He said, looking away from my eyes and over to the TV

"Why?"

"Because, I know ya don't like me, ya don't 'ave to rub it in my face." He hissed.

I realized that he wasn't going to listen, so I cupped his face, and pressed my lips on his. I moved my arms around his neck, and his arms snaked round my waist.

"I do like you Liam, you just didn't let me say" I said, my arms still round Liam's neck

"Really? He asked as his eyes went as wide as saucers. His arms were still round my waist. He leaned in to kiss me again

"Thank god, I felt gutted when I thought ya didn't like me" he whispered in my ear, then kissing me before I could say anything. Afterward we carried on watching TV, I was leaning on his chest, my legs stretched out over his, and Liam's arms were around my waist.

"I'm glad I went with ya to find ya dad." Said Liam

"Why?"

"Because, I doubt I would 'ave admitted to liking ya if I didn't go"

"Liam O' Donovan, you sure are something, I'll tell you that." I said, as he kissed my cheek. I wonder if this means we're going out. I leaned in closer to him again, to kiss him; he closed his eyes again, and leaned in. But instead I turned my head to his ear, and whispered

"Psych." Before kissing his forehead, and placing my head back on his chest.


	16. Gossip and Boyfriends

**Sorry I didn't update on the weekend, my internet connection didn't work :(**

I woke up at around 11.30 in the morning, and dragged myself out of bed. I had a shower and changed back into my onesie, and went downstairs as I scraped my hair into a ponytail at the top of my hair. My new uniform was supposed to be arriving today, problem was, they didn't have my size, so we had to get some stuff custom made. When I checked the living room, unsurprisingly they already ate breakfast. What was surprising though, was that I could sleep through Gina's shouting. I went to the freezer and got some chocolate chip ice cream, since there wasn't much, I ate it from the tub, and went to the living room, where Rick and Frank were playing pool. Tee and Lily were watching TV, I didn't recognise the programme. I didn't comment and sat cross legged on the sofa, still eating my ice cream. After about 15 minutes I finished the rest of it and chucked it in the bin. I checked my face in one if the bathroom mirrors, I wiped away the bit of ice cream stuck on the corner of my mouth. I swear I can be like a little kid when it comes to ice cream. Once I had cleaned my face, I went to Liam's room; I just really needed to ask something.

"Hey Tess" said Liam, still under his covers.

"Hey Liam, can I ask you something?" I asked.

"Yeah what" he asked, sitting up.

"Well, I was wondering…" I said trailing off, as a wave of embarrassment came over me. "Are we going out?" I blurted out, my face probably going red as a tomato.

"I thought we were, do ya 'onestly think I'd kiss a girl like 5 times and not go out with 'er?" He asked.

"Well…" I said, trailing off

"Oi!" he said. "Fine I'll make it official, Tessa Evitt-Riley, will ya go out with me?" He asked, putting his arms around my waist.

"Yep" I replied, kissing him. "Oh yeah, that reminds me, I need to try out my new uniform." I said, kissing his forehead and going to Mike, Gina and Tracy's office. Tracy was the only one there.

"Hey Tracy, have you seen my uniform? I think it would be in a brown box."

"Yeah I think so." Said Tracy, as she rummaged through a bunch of files, before pulling out a brown box. "Is this it?"

"Yeah, thanks Tracy!" I said, before going to my room to try on my new uniform. It was a white button up shirt, a black flared and pleated skirt, a purple and black tie, with diagonal stripes and a black blazer. When I put the uniform on, I realised that the skirt fitted high up my waist, and it was quite short, I mean short like a micro mini. I guess Gina put in the measurements wrong. I rolled the sleeves up to just over my elbows, and wore the tie loosely around my neck, I've always hated wearing ties. I also unbuttoned the top and as it was practically choking me. As the skirt was so short I wore some tights. A good thing about my school it that they let you wear the shoes you want, problem is that some girls stupidly decide to wear proper high heels that they can barely stand in, let alone walk in them. I decided to pick out a pair of plain black creepers.

The main reason that I go to this school was that it was originally quite close, they had music scholarships, and it's one of the best schools for teaching dyslexics. The last reason is personally the most important as I have severe dyslexia. I took the uniform off, folded it and hung it up. I put my onesie on yet again, and made my way to the living room, until I hear giggling from Carmen and Tee's room. I walk in nosily to see what everyone's laughing about.

"Hey you guys, what's so funny?" I asked

"We're playing MASH, Lily got the worst one's ever!" Said Tee, between fits of laughter

"Well let's hear it then." I said, mainly out of curiosity

"Well… Lily's going to be living in an apartment with a pet monkey, she'll be married to Gus, her job is a vet, and her car is a wheelbarrow." Answered Carmen, as she showed me a piece of paper with lots of scribbly writing on it.

"Well it could be worse." I said, laughing slightly in my head.

"True, by the way, I think Electra's written more stuff in her diary." said Lily.

"Really? Didn't she learn anything from last time?" I blurted out, remembering Electra screeching at Liam, when he barricaded himself in his room.

"Well we can find out." Carmen said smugly, grabbing Electra's diary out from underneath the bed, and practically waving it around in the air.

"OK NOW, I wanna see."

"Alright, let's see." Said Carmen as she flicked through what was presumably poem after poem after poem. "Ooh here's one. It says;

I always thought that all boys were idiots; I guess my opinions have changed. But only for one guy. I never thought I'd like him, I bet he likes that new girl. But to put it straight. I fancy Liam O'Donovan." Honestly I was half expecting that, as she was staring at him all day when we went to the waterpark, so I wasn't really surprised.

"Oh my god!" Said Lily, "Oh yeah, remember when Toby had that massive crush on Electra?"

"Who's Toby" I blurted out

"He was in care before he got fostered, you've got his room." Lily answered

"Hold on, Liam fancies you, I agree with Electra, he so does!" Said Carmen.

"Well who do you like Carmen?"

"Guess."

"How many guesses do I get?"

"One." Carmen answered

"Rick" I said without hesitation, Carmen, went silent, before her lips slowly curled into a smile, I was guessing that she didn't realise that she was doing this. "I'm guessing I'm right."

"No! Well maybe… yes" Carmen admitted.

"Ooh, Love is in the air"

"Carmen and Rick, and Electra likes Liam-"

"But Liam likes you." Said Tee, butting in.

"LUNCH!" I heard Gina scream at the top of her voice, at least now I didn't have to say anything. I went downstairs for lunch, and sat next to Harry, and Rick.

**Yeah this is pretty much another filler, but review anyway?**

**Thanks for reading!**


	17. Dares

After Lunch I went to the living room with a 500ml bottle of coke I got when we went to the water park, but I fell asleep so I forgot about it. As I opened the bottle Rick came up to me.

"Hey Tess, me, Liam, Frank, Johnny and Electra are playing Dares, wanna play?" asked Rick

"Sure, I haven't really got anything else to do." I replied, following Rick to the attic, whilst still drinking my coke. They were all sitting in a circle, except for a gap between Liam and Rick, so I sat down next to Liam and Rick.

"I'm going first," says Liam

"But it was my idea." Rick moaned

"And?" replied Liam, Rick just sighed. "Tess, truth or dare"

"Truth" I say, picking the wimp option. I don't really want to know what kind of dares Liam could come up with.

"What's ya bra size?" He asked, and everyone else started sniggering.

"I'm switching to Dare."

"Then I dare ya to answer the question.

"What's the forefeit."

"Kiss Liam" I heard someone say. Damn them

"I'm just doing that." I say, pressing my lips to Liam's. We didn't kiss for long, I'd say about 10 seconds, before I pulled away.

""My turn. Liam, truth or dare?"

"Dare"

"Swap clothes with Electra, including the blue hair" I say without hesitation, noticing that Electra was wearing a blue zip up hoodie, with a black bralet, but she had zipped up the hoodie so it wouldn't show her stomach.

"… I am not doing that"

"What and I have no say in this?"

"C'mon guys, it will be so funny"

"Fine, but he is NOT wearing my jeans. And this counts as a dare when it's my turn." Electra says, getting up.

"Fine." Liam sighs. Getting up and following Electra, I got my phone out of the pocket of my onsie, wondering how they'll look. After a few minutes Electra came back into the door, followed by Liam. Electra looked normal in Liam's purple Adidas hoodie, but Liam drew the short straw wearing Electra's blue hoodie and bralet, exposing his stomach, his hair also looked ridiculous, with long blue streaks randomly falling down his short brown hair. I burst out laughing when I saw him, everyone else did too.

"Shut up" He said, while his cheeks flushed pink.

"Alright you guys have to stay like that for the rest of the game. Liam, it's your turn now." I say

"Ok. Rick, truth or dare?"

"Truth."

"Who do ya fancy?" Liam asked, his face went slightly pink, but it wasn't very noticeable.

"I'm switching to Dare."

"Put some ice cubes in your pants."

"Fine." Said Rick, as he left the attic to get some. After a few minutes of silence, Rick returns with a tray full of ice cubes.

"Put 5 in your pants" Liam told Rick.

"…Fine" Rick said reluctantly, and poured them down the back of his trousers. He jumped a bit at first, probably due to shock, but after he calmed down, and sat down. I hid one in my hand, moved closer to him and shoved it down the back of his hoodie.

"Oi!" Liam yelled, jumping up in surprise as the ice cube trailed down his back. He practically danced around with his arm up his back looking for the ice cube. I was too busy rolling on the floor laughing, along with everyone else that I didn't notice Liam grabbing a handful of ice cubes. He sat down on my legs before I could get up. He then showed me the handful of ice cubes in his hand.

"Piss off Liam, or I will scream." I said

"Yeah, Right." Replied Liam, as he tried to shove the ice cubes down my onesie.

"HELP! STRANGER DAN-" I screamed at the top of my voice, before Liam placed his hand over my mouth, muffling the rest of my shouting

"OK OK, calm down. Ugh these have melted on me 'and" Liam exclaims wiping his hand on his jeans.

"My turn now, Johnny, truth or dare?" said Rick

"Dare." Johnny replied without hesitation.

"I dare you to go outside with Tess' guitar, and serenade a stranger."

"No."

"Then write in Gus' notebooks" said Liam.

"Why what happens when you write in his notebooks?"

"He freaks out; he either throws a tantrum or starts crying." Said Liam.

"Then why did he let me write down why I'm in care in his notebooks?"

"Cos I told 'im why you were in care."

"YOU WHAT?!" I yelled.

"I told him to pretend I never told him, then he said he couldn't pretend he didn't know because he did, and then after ages he finally shut up about it. Don't worry, he won't tell anybody." Liam assured me. I sighed, still thinking it was weird how he let me write in his notebooks, but he freaks out when anyone else would, I put the thought to the back of my head.

"Fine, where's Tess' guitar?" Johnny asked

"Under the bed." I answered as Johnny got up. He returned after a few minutes with the guitar strap slung round his shoulders. We watched from the window as he reluctantly started strumming it tunelessly and singing Marry You by Bruno Mart this random lady who seemed to be in their mid-late 30s. She was too far away for me to see her eye colour, but she hair thick dark brown hair, and she was wearing a quilted coat, blue jeans and grey vans. We were all bursting out into laughter as we could see the embarrassment on his face. Afterwards, he came upstairs to the attic. I checked my phone to see that it was 6.26 in the evening, I didn't even realise that we had been playing for that long. Whilst Johnny was trying to decide who he was going to ask, I heard a knock on the door.

"Come in." I said, as Carmen, Tee and Lily walked in.

"Mike says everyone's going to the beach tomorrow; he also said that everyone needs to be ready by 9"

"In the morning?!" I blurted out

"Yep, it's closer than the water park, and dinners ready," Carmen said as she sauntered out of the attic. I got up and left fist, as I was starving. When I had eaten, I went to my room and practiced my guitar for around an hour, just to pass the time.


	18. Going Out

**Thanks To:**

** - Hands doughnut**

**Linneagb- Hands doungnut**

**Cookie05- Hands doughnut**

Thanks for reviewing,

Skipping to the next morning.

I woke up at about 7.30, I was supposed to wake up later, but everyone's shouting and moaning woke me up. I still felt tired, so I put in some earplugs and went back to sleep. By the time I got out of bed, it was about 8.20, I made my way to the bathroom, but it was occupied, and I'm guessing it was Electra as I could recognise the voice. After about 10 minutes Electra had finished, and I could shower. Afterwards I went to my room, I changed into a black oversized t-shirt with the peace sign in white. The t-shirt had slits along the sides that went up to just below my waist while the t-shirt went to below my bum and about a quarter way down my thigh. It hung off of one of my shoulders. I wore purple ripped high waisted shorts underneath, despite the fact that they barely showed since the t-shirt was so long. Finally I wore black feather earrings, a purple shamballa, and black vans. I got my Just Do It bag from the living room, and I took out the notebook, I didn't even write in it. I left my headphones and money in the bag and put in my phone, which was now charged and a bottle of coke. When I got downstairs, everyone was just finishing breakfast. I picked an apple from the centre of the table and ate it, before throwing it into the bin.

"Ok then, everyone get in the minivan!" says Mike, I got in last, as I was still on washing up duty, but Liam had saved me a seat at the very back, so we were the only people at the back. As I got in, I hard "Oooh"s coming from everyone, I gave them all looks of confusion, as I walked to the back of the minivan. Carmen, Tee and Lily were in front of us, and they were reading magazines, they seemed too absorbed in that to bother with anything else. Rick was sitting next to Frank, and they were watching football on Rick's phone. They were in front of Carmen, Tee and Lily.

"Hey Titch." said Liam, as he kissed my cheek. "I was thinkin' of finally telling everyone, that we're going out?" He, said quietly

"Ok, I don't mind" I replied, getting my phone out, and going to BBC Iplayer, and I finally remembered to watch it. As it started playing, Liam pulled one of the earphones out of my ear and put it in his. I moved my legs over his lap and he put his arms around my waist. There was no point in being secret about it, since Liam wanted to tell everyone anyway. We both watched Russell Howard's Good News Extra, and snickered at each joke. When that was done I realised that Liam was asleep on my shoulder, his arms were still tightly wrapped round my waist. I smiled to myself and listened to music until I heard Gus yell that we're almost there.

"Liam, wake up." I whispered into his ear, waking him up, He looked over to me before quickly sitting up when he realised he was sleeping on me.

"Sorry." He said quietly, seeming embarrassed.

"Don't be," I answered, "So, how are you going to tell everyone?"

"Me?"

"Well yeah, it was your idea."

"Fine I'll think of something." Liam sighed. I honestly don't get why we have to go to the beach, plus I have no idea on what I'm going to do until we leave. When we arrived, and got out of the car, I grabbed the beach ball left in the boot, as Mike had actually remembered to bring some things. The weather was perfect, for the beach, the sun shone in our direction, and everyone wore either a hat, or sunglasses, I dug out a grey and black OBEY snapback and put it on.

"Hey Tess, wanna play volleyball?" Frank asked

"Yeah sounds fun." I replied, handing him the ball. Tyler and Johnny were drawing a court in the sand with their fingers, whilst Liam and Rick set up the net. I took my shoes off and put them in a pile where everyone else had put theirs, and then walked into the burning sand.

"I'm going in a team with Tess and Frank, against you guys" said Liam, as he took off his zip up hoodie, wearing a grey sleeveless vest underneath. Me, Frank and Liam, against Rick, Tyler and Johnny. Let the games begin.

I served first. I knew this would be a fun match. I remember when I used to go to the same school as Rick, he was really good at volleyball. Music, PE, Drama and DT were my only good subjects, whenever I tried to read anything, the words and letters would sort of dance around the page, like alphabet soup. I would get so annoyed since it was exhausting for me to read, and I could only make out a few words, and everyone thought that I was as thick as a brick. It was a massive relief when I got diagnosed with severe dyslexia.

As soon as the ball got on the other side, Rick batted it back, then Liam hit it before I could reach it. Tyler hit the ball high in the air, so that it would just go over to our side, but I slammed it on their side so they couldn't get it in time.

"1-nil to us, Rick your serve." I said, almost instantly afterwards, Rick served, slamming it on our side, like I had before. I dived at the sand and hit it in the air before it was too late, and Frank hit it to the other side. I jumped onto my feet, and brushed the sand off of my thighs and T-Shirt, but as I did, Rick hit it again high in the air, however I couldn't reach it, I jumped and reached for the ball which was behind my head, but I still couldn't reach. Damn it, I hate being 5"3.

"Ok now it's 1 all." Said Rick, "Winner takes all?"

"You're on." I said, "Our serve." I said, picking up the ball and tossing it to Frank. Frank served, but nobody was letting their guard down, we were all determined to win. We hit the ball back and forth for god knows how long, until Rick and Johnny went to get the ball at the same time and bumped into eachother. "Yes! We win!" I yelled, doing a mini victory dance. Liam and Frank joined in, the looks we got from Mike, Carmen, Lily, Electra, and even strangers were just priceless.

"Titch, do ya want ice cream?"

"Hell Yeah! Let me go fetch my purse, first" I said, turning around to get my purse, but Liam stopped me.

"Nope, Titch this is all on me."

"Burger Diving?"

"I've never even been burger diving with ya!"

"I know, but you weren't the first person to invent it." I replied, as we walked off along the beach. We figured that if we walked for long enough, then we would find it, if not, then we'd go the other way.

"My feet are burning!" I moaned

"Want another piggyback then Titch?" Liam offered, I nodded my head, and Liam knelt down so I could climb on his back. He carried me until we could visibly see the shop and then he put me down and we walked the rest of the way. When we got there, there was a girl wearing a black t-shirt, with a blue apron over it. She had waist length brown hair, and grey eyes. These grey eyes were eyeing up Liam. Liam noticed this too, as I could detect how uncomfortable he was.

"Can I get 2 Magnum whites?" asked Liam.

"I'm not a mute, Liam" I muttered so only he could hear

"Yeah but I know ya well enough, that's what ya would 'ave picked." Liam anwered, the most annoying thing was that he was right.

"Okay, by the way, here's my number" The girl said, winking at Liam, casually ignoring me. I pretended not to be jealous, so Liam wouldn't be able to tease me.

"Sorry, I'll pass. See this girl here? She's my girlfriend." Liam said, putting one arm around my shoulder, and putting the money on the counter and taking the ice cream with the other. The girl shot me daggers as we walked off and he handed me my ice cream.

"Thanks Liam." I said, kissing his cheek, as we continued walking, hand in hand. Liam finished his first, I finished mine a few minutes later, then we dropped the sticks in the bin as we approached everyone else. I sat down on one of the blankets, with Carmen, Tee and Lily. I got a bottle of coke from my bag and started drinking it

"Hey Tess, are you and Liam really going out?" Carmen askes excitedly, which almost made me do a spit take.

"Who said that?"

"Liam."

"When?"

"In breakfast, you were the last down."

"What did he say?"

"Basically, Electra said I bet you like Tess, and then he said fine, I do, then Electra said, are you going out with her and Liam said yes, but don't tell her a said that." Lily explains. So there was no point in him asking if he could tell anyone, because he already did. I don't mind really, it saves on awkwardness.

"So are you guys going out?"

"Yeah, he just didn't tell me that he told you guys."

"Oh my god it is true!" Carmen squealed. "Tell me everything!"

"Fine… he told me he liked me just before I found my dad, and then I told him that I liked him back at the end of the day, and yesterday we started officially going out." I admitted, occasionally glancing over at Liam. He was helping Harry build a sandcastle for Jeff with Harry. So cute! After I had answered all their questions, I lied on the blanket and started gazing at the clouds, I'd ran out of ideas on what to do. After a few minutes of staring at the sky, I realized that Liam was sitting next to me.

"I saw you building sandcastles with Harry, so cute!" I said, looking over to him. Everyone else, were playing a game of volleyball, Girls vs. Boys.

"I think I might be going soft." Said Liam, as we both sat up.

"It's cute though." I said, leaning on him. We watched everyone else play volleyball, it seemed pretty evenly matched at first, but then the boys started to take the lead.

"What time is it?" I asked

"About half 3."

"Already?!"

"Yeah, time flies." Said Liam. We said nothing else after that and watched everyone else play volleyball, it wasn't an awkward silence though. Afterwards Mike made us go into the minivan, as for everyone else, school started in 2 days. I sat next to Liam again, we spent the whole time making Yo Momma jokes

"Yo Momma's so old, that her birth certificate is a rock!" I said

"Yo Momma's so fat, that when she wears a red dress, people think the bus came early!" He replied

"Yo Momma's so ugly she turned Medusa to stone!" I didn't get how we remembered so many, but we were just laughing away. I love moments like these. Liam leaned in and kissed my cheek. "You missed." I said, as I kissed him on the lips. I wrapped my arms around his neck, as we kissed. It felt like a bomb, fireworks, and explosives were going off at the same time. I pulled away, and started to feel sleepy.

"You can sleep on my lap again if you want Titch."

"You have a comfy lap" I said, as I placed my head on his lap, I felt one of his arms go around my waist as I fell asleep.

**Thanks for reading and hopefully reviewing**

**Comments, characters and ideas are really appreciated! :3**


	19. In the Cafe

I woke up on my bed, in the clothes I wore yesterday. I don't remember waking up when I fell asleep on Liam's lap. I got off of my bed, and tied my hair into a ponytail, and then making my way downstairs. Liam was just about to go downstairs

"Hey, Liam"

"Hey Titch," Liam said, in a drowsy voice. "Enjoy being carried?"

"Carried?"

"Yep, ya must 'ave been really tired, ya missed Mcdonalds, and when we got back, ya were still out of it, so I carried ya to your room. Electra kept cracking jokes, saying I was taking it too fast." Said Liam.

"Sorry." I say, pecking him on the lips

"Na it's fine." Liam replied, grinning.

"See ya" I said, kissing him and leaving his room, when I got a text.

_**Hello Tess, How are you?**_

_**I'm near your area today, do you want to meet up? At about 3?**_

_**I also need to talk to Mike, he wanted to talk to me, but I couldn't because of work.-Blake**_

I checked the time, 11.00. How the hell do I sleep for this long? I went downstairs to Mike's office, and knocked on the door

"Come in"

"Mike? My dad says that he wants to meet you at 3." I told him as I came in

"Yep, he told me when we found you and Liam, from when you guys ran off. We'll be leaving at 2.30, is this ok?" He answered, filling out paperwork.

"Yep" I said, about to leave to get ready

"Tess?" says Mike

"Yeah?"

"Don't bother about the rest of your washing up duty, I would have done the same thing myself."

"Thanks Mike!" I said, as I went upstairs. I had a long shower, and washed out any sand still in my hair, then I got dry and wrapped a towel around my head and body. I went to my room and changed into a high waisted black pleated skirt, a purple t-shirt with Angry Birds on it, an oversized light blue denim jacket, black tights and black creepers. I took the towel off of my head and wore purple bow earrings, my purple Paul's Boutique watch with a skull in the centre of it, and a black fedora hat. I then went downstairs and sat next to Liam and Rick on the couch, leaning on Liam.

"PDA, much?" said Rick

"Shut up" I said, smiling at him

"You're just jealous" said Liam, Rick blushed and shut up.

"What are you guys watching?"

"Well we were watching MOTD kickabout, but that's ended, what do you what to w-"

"AMERICA'S NEXT TOP MODEL!" I yelled, changing the channel

"Calm down!" said Rick

"But I didn't see yesterday's episode." I mentioned

"Fine." Rick and Liam said in unison. I watched the whole episode, ignoring the look of sheer boredom on their faces. Afterwards, I checked the time, 2.00. I went upstairs, wandering around as I had nothing to do.

"Titch, ya can't be lost, you've been 'ere for like a month and a half!" I hear Liam say, his cockney accent really sticking out.

"But I've got nothing to do for half an hour." I whined,

"We'll we're playing video games now, if ya wanna play?"

"YAY!" I said, following him to the living room. I beat Liam 5 times, Rick 4 times and Frank 5 times as well. Liam won twice, although I have the feeling that he let me win, Rick won 5 times, and Frank won 5 times. I was about to play against Rick again until Mike called for me saying we needed to go. I eagerly climbed into the car, and Mike drove off.

At the Café

I was waiting at one of the booths with Mike. I was originally feeling excited about this, but now I felt nauseous and nervous. I had a funny feeling in my stomach, like I did when I first met my Dad. I tried to put the thoughts to one side of my head, but this time I couldn't as my mind became overwhelmed with thoughts. One thing was clear though. _**I was going to ask him about my past. And I wouldn't take no for an answer.**_

_**Sorry for all the really short chapters, they will get longer in a bit i swear :P**_

_**Plus I don't get why it wont let me mention :/**_

_**Thanks for reading and reviewing!**_


	20. It's All Your Fault

_I had a funny feeling in my stomach, like I did when I first met my Dad. I tried to put the thoughts to one side of my head, but this time I couldn't as my mind became overwhelmed with thoughts. One thing was clear though. __**I was going to ask him about my past. And I wouldn't take no for an answer.**_

I was sitting quietly drinking my hot chocolate. It was now 10 past 3. I was wondering how long my Dad would take, when I heard Mike get up and shake a man's hand. I looked up immediately, and saw it was my dad. Thy started talking for a while.

"Tess, I'm going to go run some errands, I'll be back soon."

"Ok Mike, bye." I replied as he left.

"So how have things been Tess?" Dad asks.

"It's been up and down really, It's been getting better. What about you?"

"Work's been consuming. I never forgot about you and your brother"

"Yeah… I still haven't found my brother." I muttered, but loud enough for me to hear.

"Oh." Said Dad, his face fell.

"Dad, can I ask you some questions?"

"Yep."

"When's my birthday?"

"October 31st. You're 14, going on 15." My dad answered

"What's my real name?"

"It's still Tessa Evitt-Riley, but your middle name is Marie." Tessa Marie Evitt-Riley. So that's my full name.

"Why was I abandoned?" I asked, and by Dad's expression, it seemed like he'd been dreading this question.

"It's a long story Tess." Dad sighed.

"We've got a long time." I pointed out.

"I'll tell you when you're older"

"But I'm nearly 15!" I objected.

"Fine… " Sighed Dad, "Your mother, she had Skyler, your older sister, when she was 14. We had you and your brother when she was 16 and I was 19. We were together for 6 months. Then I found out that she was cheating on me. And I left her. She became a violent drunk, and Skyler had to go to care, she hid you and your brother so you wouldn't be taken away. After 4 months of her doing whatever it would take to try and get me back. Then she called me… she said that if I didn't take her back, she would abandon you and your brother. I called the police and Social Services, but by the time I got to her, she had already abandoned you in a dustbin. Then she called again, saying that I had one chance, or she'd abandon your twin. I said yes and found her, but by then, she had already abandoned him. I handed her into the police. When she got out of jail, she took Skyler, but the guilt of what she actually did meant that she became even more of a drunk that before. She would get though a bottle of vodka and wine a day. Until… she committed suicide, and she threw herself off of a bridge." Dad finally explained.

So that's it. That's why I'm in care. Mum was my age when she had Skyler. She was a drunk. Is she the reason why I have this scar? Did she care about us that little to point where she'd abandon us just to get Dad back? Is this all a lie? I had so many feelings, first I felt numb, but then I felt disappointment, anger, sadness, and then I realized, I couldn't hold them in anymore.

"It's your fault."

"Tess?"

"If you had just taken custody of us, that would never happened."

"Tess, if you just let m-"

"Do not call me that." I said in a low growl

"If you could just let me ex-"

"FUCK THIS!" I screamed at the top of my voice, standing up and pounding my fist on the table. At this point I didn't care that everyone was looking at me, or if I could taste the salty tears fall down my face." I BET YOU NEVER EVEN CARED ABOUT US, OR EVEN THOUGHT ABOUT US, DID YOU?!"

"Tes-"

"DO NOT CALL ME THAT, ALL THIS SHIT, ALL THE CRAP I'VE HAD TO GO THROUGH MY WHOLE LIFE, IS ALL YOUR FAULT!" I screamed, "IT'S ALL YOUR FAULT!" I scream, crying at the same time. I blanked out, everything went white. This hasn't happened since I was 10. When I came back to my senses, I saw my Dad, his face was dripping with hot chocolate, the mug was smashed, on the floor. I looked around, everyone was looking, no glaring at me. Scared of me, whispering about me. I felt so humiliated that I wanted to just crawl into a hole and die, but instead I ran out as fast as I could, sobbing my eyes out. I just unleashed 5 years of extreme anger I forgot I had on my Dad. He didn't do anything wrong. 6 words repeatedly played in my head

I ran out to the nearest place where I could be alone. I found a bench in a nearly deserted place, and curled up on it. I cried into my knees, my make-up was probably running down my face.

What the fuck have I done?

**Thanks for reading and (hopefully) reviewing**


	21. Stay Out of It

After the incident, my mind started having random blackouts, my mind started skipping scenes that happened, like a record being scratched. Once I had gathered my thoughts, and the blackouts had gone, I was curled up in a ball in the corner of my room, my knees were at my chest, and I had wrapped my arms around my knees. I checked the time, and it was 3 hours since I'd found out. It wasn't Dad's fault. It wasn't. If my mum was alive I would've been saying these things to her. I was still crying into my chest, when someone barged into my door.

"Alright, listen here." Electra started to say, with an angry tone. "You may think you're so great, bu-"

"Electra, now is a bad time, is this about Liam?" I asked, trying to hide the fact that I still crying.

"You little bitch, I know all about what happened today-"

"Stay out of it." I said sharply, I couldn't be bothered to put up with this.

"Well, to be honest, I can't really blame your mum, if I were her I would have done the same thing" said Electra. Ouch. It felt like I was being kicked in the stomach, those words were so harsh. The tears started rolling down my cheek.

"You did not just say that." I said quietly, looking her straight in the eye.

"Oh I think you'll find that I did." Electra said back, smirking at me. And that's when I snapped again, and all I could remember before blacking out, was me lunging at Electra.

When my blackout had gone, I realized that I was standing up, Electra was doubled over clutching her stomach, she was clearly in pain. There was a stinging pain on my cheek

"That's how I felt when you said that, Electra. This issue of yours has nothing to do with me does it? It's about Liam." I said and her eyes went wide. I felt twinges of guilt, mainly as I freaked out, and I promised to myself I'd never do that again. "Electra? When I say stay out of it, I mean stay out of it." I said, as she left my room. I buckled over, and curled up in the corner again. What have I done? And it's at this time, that I wonder if I would have been better off not knowing

**Since this chapter is really short i'll upload 2 tomorrow!**

**Thanks for reading and reviewing! :3**


	22. It's OK to Mess Up

Liam's POV.

Mike told everyone about what happened. Apparently Titch blacked out, so she doesn't know half of what happened, she doesn't even remember telling Mike what happened. Everyone's really worried about her, except Electra. I don't even know what she said, but I think she kicked Electra in the stomach. Tess isn't like this, I was worried about her, so I checked that nobody was looking and went to her room

Tess'POV

I was still in my room. I stopped crying at around 6, now it was nearly 8.30. I'd been on my own for 2 and a half hours, trying to take in all the information that had been loaded on me. Sometimes, that's what I need, to be on my own, with my thoughts for company, I don't really feel lonely, just calm. I hadn't moved from my spot in corner since I hit Electra. Not to eat, despite the fact that my stomach sounded like a dying whale, and not even to turn the light on. It was practically pitch black, apart from the light coming from the nearby street light. I heard another knock on my door. I was figuring it was Electra again,

"Titch?" I heard Liam say, I felt a surge of relief come over me as Liam came in and shut the door. He turned the light on, and sat on the floor next to me. "Family sucks." He said.

"True, my mum was a vindictive bitch, and my dad did nothing about it." I replied, as he put one arm around my waist, and pulled me towards his chest, he then placed his other arm around my neck, and his hand was on the back of my head. Liam's hoodie was surprisingly comfy, and I rested my head against my hoodie.

"Tess, there's a scratch on ya cheek." Liam told me

"Is there any blood?"

"Don't think so"

"I've really fucked this up haven't I?" I mumbled. "First I throw hot chocolate in my dad's face then I yell at him, and how I've hit Electra! So much for a new start."

"Don't say that. Remember, it's OK to mess up." Liam said, raising my chin, and kissing me soflty. Liam started twirling some of my hair in his fingers once we pulled away

"What happened then?"

"I'm confused about it, I blanked out, and when I came to my senses, my dad had hot chocolate dripping from his face and everything was wrecked. I felt really dizzy, as if everyone else was spinning around, and I just lashed out, at my dad. It was basically me getting out 5 years of anger out, without hitting somebody. I should have been saying those words to my mum, but I can't now."

"What did Electra say to ya? Mike told everyone what 'appened, he said that ya might have blacked it out"

"I don't remember telling Mike. It's all fuzzy to me. Electra was pissed at me, I think it's about you, I swear she fancies you. She said that she would've done the same thing if she was mum." I say, blinking back tears, this time they stayed there.

"She's just a jealous bitch, besides you are going out with a sexy bastard!" Liam joked, I hit him lightly on the arm while laughing.

"Right…" I say, trailing off.

"Oii!" He yelled, "Are ya going to come downstairs? I hate seein' ya like this Titch"

"Fine." I sighed, getting up and wiping my eyes. I checked my hand it was covered in tears and makeup. I grabbed my onesie and a pack of makeup wipes with my other hand and made my way to the bathroom.

"I'm going to get changed see ya in a bit." I said, as I walked to the bathroom. When I was in there I picked up one of the wipes, and cleaned my face, making sure to get rid of all the makeup and all the tears. Then I got an antiseptic wipe and cleaned my cheek, wincing as it hurt like hell. Then I changed out of my clothes and into my onesie. I put my top and skirt in the laundry bin as they were stained. Then I picked up my jacket, tights and wipes and went to my room to put them away Liam was leaning against my bedroom wall. I walked out of my room once I was done. Surprisingly I didn't look like I'd just spent about 2-3 hours crying. Liam shortly followed, we went downstairs, I sat on the couch, between to Rick and Liam, Frank and Electra was on the other one. Electra wouldn't meet my gaze, so I ignored her and started watching Impractical Jokers with them.

"Hey Tess, are you feeling alright now?" Rick askes me.

"Yeah I'm fine now; I just want to forget this ever happened." I answered as we watched TV. I guess everyone else had gone to bed as I couldn't see them. I was pretty shocked on how I could be feeling better in just a few hours. Then I remembered Liam word's, they were ringing in my head.

It's OK to mess up.


	23. Mystery Guy

**Skipping to when School Starts for Tess**

I was woken up by the sound of my alarm clock beeping at 6 in the morning. I was still utterly exhausted and threw my alarm clock against the wall. That shut it up. I slowly got out of bed, the second I got out it wanted to go back to the warmth and comfort of my bed. I had a quick shower, went back to my room and changed into my uniform. My uniform is a white shirt, a pleated skirt, a purple and black tie, with a black blazer. The skirt was supposed to start at my hips, but Gina put the measurements wrong, so it's now a high waisted skirt. None of the sizes on the website suited me, so we had to get one custom made. I rolled the sleeves up to my elbows, undid the top button as it was choking me, and did my tie so it fitted loosely round my neck. I wore some tights and black creepers. I put on some foundation to cover up a scratch on my cheek. I was guessing it was Electra when I blacked out and hit her. It's gotten better since then. I still haven't apologised to my Dad. I could never find the right words to say, I'm going to call him at the weekend, definitely, but what am I going to say? I tried to put those thought behind me and brushed my hair, and put on the black blazer, also folding the sleeves up. When I checked the time it was 7.30. I've never been good at getting ready quickly. I grabbed the suitcase full of clothes I packed yesterday, which were supposed to last me for the week, as I was boarding on weekdays since I couldn't be arsed to go on the train every day. I carried my school bag and suitcase downstairs, where everyone was sat around the dining table having breakfast. I wasn't hungry, so I grabbed an apple from the fruit bowl in the middle, threw it in the air a couple of times and catching it, before biting into it.

"Hey Tess, your uniform is so nice!" said Carmen.

"Thanks!"

"Tess, we need to go in 5 minutes." Says Mike.

"Okay, See you guys on Saturday."

"Why aren't you coming back today?" Gus asked me.

"Because I board on weekdays." I answered bluntly, as I checked my timetable in my schedule. Drama, English, Maths, Music, PE, Geography, History and then DT. I mentally sighed of relief. Despite that fact that I'm terrible at English, History and pretty much anything to do with words, I had all my best subjects- PE, Music, Drama, and DT. I put my suitcase in the back of Mike's car, then I said bye to everyone.

"See you guys." I said waving at them

"DON'T LEAVE ME!" Liam yelled as a joke, running up to me and bear hugging me.

"Liam I think you're gonna break my ribs at this point" I choked out, as Liam was crushing me. He let me go and I kissed him on the cheek. I instanly heard "Oooh"s coming from everyone else, but they were silenced by two death glares

"Bye Liam."

"See ya on Saturday Titch." Liam said. I'm actually going to miss them, even if it's only for a week. I climbed into Mike's car, and he started it and drove off. It was 7.45 now, and school started at 9. It took less time in the car, so I was guessing I'd be there by 8.40 ish. I put my headphones over my ears, and listened to random songs on my iphone. By the time we'd got there, it was quarter to 9. I was supposed to be early, as I'm one of the year reps. Everyone knows I'm in care, I've always kept my blackouts a secret, as I only have them when I'm extremely angry, or sad etc.

"Thanks Mike!" I said, as I walked into school. The first place I went to was the school office. They had to tell me what I had to do for this week, they'd give the other year rep a list, since he's better at reading, but because of my dyslexia, I couldn't. The first time, I spent an hour trying to read it. I still couldn't though.

We were getting a new student, I thought nothing of it untill I heard his name. His name was Austin Evitt-Riley. He had the same surname, and he would be in my form. This meant that he could have the same birthday as me. He could be my twin brother. I had to wait for him in the reception, show him around, as possibly find out more about this guy. The list had his schedule attached to it, we've got Drama, DT, English, Music, Geography and History together. I anxiously waited for the clock to go to nine, when I was told to go to the reception. I've been through this position lots of times, this meant that the new guy or girl had gotten in, and now I had to show them around. Here goes nothing. I walked towards the reception, adjusting my blazer and skirt.

"Austin, meet our year rep," said our head teacher, we were lucky that our head teacher wasn't a bitch, she'd cut the student council slack for anything, mainly since we had to organise so many things

"Hi, I'm Tessa Evitt-Riley, but call me Tess."

"Hey, I'm Austin. Your eyes are cool." He said. I took a good look at him. He had hair which was uncannily like Tom Daley's, except it was jet black. He had dark skin exactly like mine, and he had warm chocolaty brown eyes, like Liam's, except you couldn't get so lost in Austin's eyes

"Thanks, let me show you around. We're in the same form so I'll show you where that is too." I said, as he followed me.

"So what brings you here Austin?"

"Well, I got fostered, I've been in care all my life." Said Austin, I was getting more convinced by the minute that he was my twin. "What about you?"

"I'm also in care, all my life. I don't really want to be fostered, I lived in the nearby care home, until I moved to one called Elm Tree House."

"I live kinda close from there."

"Really? That's uncanny." I said, "This is the first gym room, this is usually for girls PE, but I'm telling you this so you don't go into the wrong one. Next to that is the changing room and the maths block" I said as we continued walking, lots of girls were looking at Austin, and whispering to their friends. Some were saying hi to me, often I didn't know them. I had a feeling that Austin would soon be popular; I also had a feeling that he'd be stalked by girls who wanted to date him before he got popular. People would call me popular, but I wouldn't as that made me feel like those fake sluts in my year. "This is the science block, don't drink in here, you'll get detention." I pointed out. "There's the library, if I were you I'd try not to borrow books, the librarian is a proper bitch." I said, Austin laughed at the last part.

"You are so different from the other student reps." Said Austin.

"I'll take that as a compliment." I said. Once I'd finished the tour, I showed Austin the form room and went in. We were late since I was showing him around. When we went in, everyone looked back at us. As expected girls were staring at him,

"Why are you late and who's this?" My form tutor asked, pointing at Austin.

"I was showing the new boy around." I replied and sat down in my usual seat, which was right in the middle

"Hey, I'm Austin. I just moved to this school." He said.

"Ok then Austin, we have a seating plan in tutor period, there's a spare seat in the front left corner" said my form tutor, Ms Masterson.

"Hey Tess, how's your summer been?" my best friend, Keira asked

"Good, got moved to another care home." I said.

"Did you… find anyone?" Keira asked cautiously and carefully, I knew what she meant. She meant if I had found my family yet, she's the only person who knows that I was left in a dustbin.

"I found my dad and my older sister, I also have a twin brother, but I haven't found him."

"That's great!" she said, hugging me.

After tutor period, we had Drama, we were doing comedy. It's one of the few classes the whole form has together. We had just gone through the practise exercises, and now we were being split up into groups. I mentally facepalmed at the groups. I was glad that I was with Keira, but the rest of us, were people who I kind of wanted to punch. The "popular guys" in the form. I've always hated those stereotypes. I'd rather they just didn't exist. Once the teacher had handed each group a script, all different, we now had to practice them. At this point I wished I was in another group as the guys had now started talking about Man City, and how much pizza they could eat in an hour. Once Keira and I had read the script we chucked the 2 copies we had in their faces.

"You've had enough time to talk, read the script" I said firmly.

"Chill out!" One of the guys said sarcastically. This one's called Zac. If he thought that I was getting angry, he should have seen me at the café.

"Just do the work." I sighed, surprisingly, they did what I said.

"Zac, you say these lines, before you say the first one, walk in, kind of like how Miss Masterson does. Okay?" Keira said, she didn't even mind going through the lines time and time again with me and everyone else. After drama we had English. In the new seating plan, I was sat next to Austin. One thing's been done for me. Now I just need to pluck up the courage to ask him how much he actually knows about himself. If he says he was abandoned outside a care home, then that has to be more than just a coincidence.

_**Thanks for reading and hopefully reviewing!**_

_**Loads of this chapter was based on my own school, so sorry if you get confused.**_

_**Thanks to**_

_**Mr Zeze- Hands cookie**_

_**Cookie05- Hands cookie**_

_**Linneagb- Hands cookie**_

_**SkittlesAreMyLife- Hands cookie**_

_**Plus if you review, please don't review late, please please PLEASE review every chapter, so I know what you think, and what I need to change, if you already do, then, Thanks! You're awesome! :3**_


	24. Uncanny Coincidences

I sat down next to Austin, mentally planning out the questions I was going to ask him. I used a sort of point system in my head. I would ask him questions, I'd put a point whenever he said something that made him seem more likely to be my brother, like, if he doesn't know his birthday, that's a point. If he was abandoned outside the care home, that's another one. If he doesn't know his parents, then that's a sure fire sign. Here goes nothing. I thought as I sighed to myself.

"Hey Austin?"

"Yeah?"

"Can I ask you some questions?"

"What, like a journalist?"

"Something like that…" I trailed off.

"Shoot" He said, pointing his finger at me like a gun.

"When's your birthday?"

"Don't laugh at me, but honestly, I don't know." He said, looking down once he'd finished his sentence. That's one point

"Ok and, why are you in care."

"I'll tell you if you tell me."

"Fine I was abandoned as a baby in a dustbin."

"Abandoned at birth outside the care home." He said immediately afterwards. Abandoned outside a care home. 2 points.

"Do you know your parents?"

"No."

"Don't be scared but… I think you're my brother"

"What?" He asked, his eyes were as wide as saucers.

"Well, I found my older sister and my dad in the summer holidays; he told me he had a twin brother. I doubted that my brother would know their birthday. Plus it can't be a coincidence that we have the same skin tone, surname and natural eye color."

"But your eyes-"

"They're purple because of coloured contacts." I pointed out.

"To be honest I kind of thought that when you told me your name, but I thought my family were dead."

"Well… at the weekend, come to my care home with me. You said you live nearby, right? The head care worker can set up a DNA test."

"That would be cool. What's your favourite colour? If you do turn out to be my sister, I should know some stuff about you."

"Purple, what about you?" I answered

"Green."

"How tall are you?" I asked out of curiosity

"5"11."

"Damn I'm 5"3!"

"How many care homes have you been to?"

"Dunno really, never counted. You?"

"12. I'm living in a foster home right now."

"Cool, are you on a scholarship?"

"Yep, for sports. You?"

"All-rounders. Music and Drama" I said. After that we didn't really talk. After that we had break, where I saw Austin practically being mobbed by random girls. Part one of my prediction is correct.

"So Austin, what brings you here?" I heard one girl say

"What's your type?"

"When's your birthday?" These were the only questions I could make out. The rest were just unrecognisable chattering, and I could tell by the grimace on his face that he wanted them to go away. He ended up walking away to the boys' toilets, some of the girls even hung around. I had a feeling that he'd stay there until next lesson so I hurried off to the canteen, I had another boring meeting at lunch so I needed to eat something. I bought a sandwich and sat down next to Keira, and some of my other friends.

"Tess, have you done the homework?" My friend, Laura asked. She was in the same maths class as me.

"Well I've done the one they gave me, but everyone else got a harder one since I'm dyslexic." I reminded her, I'm in the middle group out of 5, but I always work my ass off. After break we had maths, where we had to hand in the homework. I always had someone next to me to help me understand the questions, since they always danced around on the paper. This is going to be a long lesson. I sat down in my seat, we had another seating plan, as everyone was talking. Everyone talked anyway, regardless of how far away they were. My seat was in the middle of the 2nd row, between 2 of my friends Laura and Texas, behind 2 people I never talked to, and in front of me, were 2 guys who were in the basketball team, one of them was on the football team as well.

"Tess, are you going to our game on Friday after school?" One of them asked. He's called Jacob

"I don't really have a choice. One, You're going out with Keira and she's forcing me to go. Two, I have to be there anyway, since it's at our school" I say, listing the reasons on my fingers.

"Oh yeah, I forgot that," He replied. Most of the rest of maths was just me asking the teacher what the questions said. 3 lessons down, 5 more to go. I had to go help the boys' PE teacher, as he was busier than usual as he was supposed to help the boys' basketball team team practice for their game. This meant I had to help with the warm up, which was stretching, then running from one side of the court, to the other. They did this for 6 minutes straight. I hated doing this, and I didn't get why they couldn't just get a teaching assistant to do it. Sometimes I become like the teacher's pet, since I'm the student council year rep. The girls PE kit was a black skort, with a grey t-shirt. Mine was about 2-3 sizes too big, so you could hardly see the skort. The PE top had the school's logo of a purple rose on the top right, below my shoulder. For the boys, it was the same; apart from they had baggy black shorts instead of a skort. Once I had done the warm up, split the teams, and got them to start playing games, I could relax and get my energy back. I sat down on the floor, and got my phone out from the side of my shoe. I was planning to just play Temple Run, but I got a text

"_Hey, Titch, how r ya? Xxx" _The text said, it was from Liam. I was extremely surprised that I could sort of understand it, at first the letters danced about, and then they moved and joined into words

"_Good thanks, just had to help do the boys warm up in PE, did I tell u I'm in the student council? Xxx"_ I texted back

"_No u didn't, don't forget, ur going out with me ;) xxx_" He replied

"_Course I won't, teachers use that fact that I'm student council to make me do the shit they can't be arsed to do :( xxx_" I answered back, before the teacher came back, meaning now I had to watch over the rest of the boys, who were also playing games, just not in the team. I put my phone in my shoe and walked to the outside court, where the guys were playing basketball. Finally after PE, and the rest of my lessons, I had a meeting, and after that, I could go back to my dorm, and hibernate until tomorrow.


	25. Jealousy

**Thanks to everyone for reviewing :D**

**P.S In England DT stands for Design Technology**

I was waiting for Mike with Austin. My school made us go to school on Saturday, but we could wear what we wanted. I was wearing a pair of blue high waisted jeans which I ripped, a black jumper, which hung off of my shoulder, and I had rolled the sleeves up to my elbow. The Jumper had the word LOVE on it in big purple writing, like the 60s pop art, except the O was a heart. I was also wearing my purple vans, my white Pauls boutique watch on my left wrist, and 7 wristbands on the right, each in the order of the rainbow. Austin was wearing black jeans, with an emerald green Superdry T-Shirt, with a black button up shirt which he left open and green converse.

"So, when's he getting here?"

"He said he would be here by 2, it's 2.30." I sighed, checking my watch. Mike doesn't really seem like the kind of person who'd be disorganised, I hope he didn't bring everyone else.

"Don't worry, it was worse at my other care home, they would be hours late, so I told them to just get me a train pass." He said, slouching against a wall. After a few minutes of awkward silence, the minibus finally pulled up, I guess he brought everyone else.

"Great, he brought everyone else." I muttered to myself as I got on, Austin shortly followed

"Sorry we're late Tess, everyone wanted to see the area, and we lost track of time." Mike explained to me

"That's fine, by the way this is Austin." I said, introducing him to everyone else, while I scanned the minibus to see who was on it, everyone was here except Frank, Liam and Electra. Everyone already knew about Austin, Mike had told them.

"_Hey, I'm on my way back, finally! xxx_" I texted to Liam, after about a minute he replied.

"_Thank god, I was missin ya ;) xxx_" Once I read his text, I wondered if he knew about Austin. I guess he should know, Mie did tell everyone. Carmen and Tee instantly started talking to Austin, as we were in the seats behind them. Lily's respite care was over so she had gone to live with her dad. I spent the rest of the journey home, texting Liam and playing games, whilst Austin was listening to music. When we arrived, I went in and I was instantly bear hugged by Liam

"Titch!" He yelled,

"Calm down Liam, I haven't been gone for that long!" I tried to say, I heard wolf whistles coming from the living room, but they shut up quickly. Liam let go and went into the living room to play pool with Rick and Frank.

"So Austin, do you want a drink? Mike says he'll sort out the test."

"What drinks are there?"

"Orange juice, coke, milk." I answered

"Coke then." Austin replied, as I got out a 2l bottle of coke

"Well, there's hardly any in this, so just take the bottle." I say, handing it to me. I glanced over at Liam to see him looking at me raising an eyebrow. I looked away feeling confused. I went to Mike's office to get the DNA test that Mike organised.

"Ok Tess, we're going to need a swab from the inside of your cheek. Same with Austin." Said Mike, as he handed me two swabs and 2 plastic bags. I got them and went to my room with Austin. Austin had just gone in, when Liam came up to me.

"Tess we need to talk." Liam said, hinting agitation in his voice.

"About what?" I asked, looking up at him

"About ya and the new boy, what the hell's goin' on?" He asked, obviously pissed off,

"He goes to my school, what ar-"

"What the fuck are ya up to at school then? 'Aven't you forgotten that I'm ya boyfriend?!" He said through gritted teeth.

"What the fuck Liam? Weren't you fucking listening when Mike told EVERYONE, that I was bringing him with me today, for a DNA test? He might be my fucking brother!"

"Tess-"

"Maybe you should at least ask what's happening before flipping out!" I said, walking back into my room. Austin was admiring my guitar.

"I see that you've seen my guitar then." I said, trying to keep my mind off of Liam.

"Yep, by the way, how many instruments do you play?"

"17"

"Holy shit! Which are?" Austin asked, seeming impressed

"Piano, Accoustic Guitar, Violin, Electric Guitar, Keyboard, Trombone, Drums, Saxophone, Flute, Trumpet, French Horn, Harp, Bass Guitar, Cello, Double Bass, Harmonica, and singing, if that counts. Oh and I used to play the bagpipes."

"May I ask how the hell did you have time for that?!" He asked

"I'd spend my entire Sunday, Monday, and half of Tuesday in lessons." I explained, "Now at Rosewood Grace, I can take all the lessons in school instead. I played instruments because I was dyslexic, I was always amazed that I could understand sheet music without a problem, usually words and letters break up and dance around the page. I threw so many tantrums in primary school, I got so annoyed" I said, realising that I was starting to rant. "Why did you do sports?"

"Well, I remember, when I was about 9, I was moved to this care home, which I was absolutely terrified of, it made Burnywood look nice. I tried to stay the hell away from it, so I signed up to as many clubs as I could, Football, Basketball, Rugby, Hockey, even Sailing… oh yeah, Canoeing and Kayaking. I got really good at them, and got on most of the teams. It was helpful since I could finally get away from school on some weekends. " He explained.

"You went to Burnywood? It seems like everyone went there, I guess it's a shame I didn't find you earlier." I mumbled, but Austin still heard me

"It's fine, better late than never." He said with a small smile. "So, let's do that DNA test before we forget."

"Ok," I said, handing him one of the swabs and the bag. He did what Mike said was needed to be done before I could even say.

"How do you know how to do DNA tests?" I asked

"I may have suspected a few people of being in my family, but they all came back negative. That's why I was a bit paranoid about you. I think I gave up looking for my family when I was 12."

"Same actually, I ran away a few times. At least this time I found them. Austin, what will happen if we're not brother and sister?"

"Then we'll be friends, you helped me around the school and got those crazy girls to stop stalking me." He said, making me laugh a bit.

"It's nothing, besides, I kind of predicted that would happen when I was showing you around. So many girls, and a few guys were staring at you." I said, I quickly did the DNA test and put the swab in the plastic bag. "I'm going to give these to Mike" I said, as picked up both the bags and went downstairs. I heard Liam and Frank talking, I thought nothing of it until I realised they were saying something about me. Suddenly feeling nosy, I stopped dead in my track, eavesdropping on their conversation. I was at the bottom of the stairs, I couldn't see them, they couldn't see me. I could only hear them.7

"Great. I've only gone at yelled at Tess about that new boy, did you know that he could be her brother?" Liam asked, I was guessing they were playing pool

"Yep. Mike told everyone, I don't remember where you were all of that day, you weren't even there when everyone was talking about it."

"I've fucked up completely haven't I?" said Liam, "I don't even know what came over me, of course Tess wouldn't cheat."

"Liam, what did you say to her?" Frank asked

"I told her that we need to talk, about her and that boy. I thought he was a new kid. I felt really annoyed when she paid attention to him; I just wanted to tell that guy right there and then to piss off. Then she told me that she goes to her school. I interrupted 'er, and asked 'er what the hell she was up to at school. Then she told me that 'e might be 'er brother, and then she stormed off" Liam explained

"Liam, I think you're jealous." Frank said

"But I was never like that with any other girl I've gone out with. I guess that's why I freaked out"

"You're used to it being the other way around." Frank said. I had no idea that he know about all this stuff.

So Liam's jealous, for his sake, let the relentless teasing begin.


	26. Results

Skipping to the day of the DNA test results

This is it.

Today's the day.

I didn't sleep a wink last night, now my body feels completely drained, but my mind is wide awake. I finally got to sleep at about 6, I woke up at 9, today's Sunday, the results come back, but I have to wait until Austin and his foster family get here. I stayed under the covers of my bed, as I was feeling cold, I would've stayed there until Austin got here, but Liam came in to my room. I haven't talked to him since I snapped at him.

"Tess, can we talk?"

"That's what you said last time and look what happened."

"I'm so sorry, I was-"

"Jealous?"

"Yep"

"So the great Liam O'Donovan is jealous, didn't think that was possible" I said sarcastically

"Yep, but don't tell anyone else, otherwise everyone will think I've gone soft" He said, I looked over at him and his face had become flushed with pink

"Fine." I said, as Liam sat on the bed next to me.

"So I forgiven?"

"Yep, as long as you let me sleep!" I said, as he leaned in and kissed me. Once we pulled away, I still didn't get out of bed

"Titch, ya need to get out of bed eventually!"

"But I'm COLD"

"C'mon Titch." He said as he attempted to pick me up

"NO!" I said, he put me down "Fine, I'll change

"Alright Titch" Liam replied, laughing as he left me room. I changed out of my purple shorts and t-shirt, and I changed into an oversized grey knitted jumper, which hung off my shoulder and went to my mid-thigh, with black leggings and black Uggs. I rolled the sleeves of the jumper to my elbow and tied my hair in a messy bun.

"What time is it now?"

"10.30."Liam replied

"Great, Austin and his foster family will be here at 1, what the hell am I supposed to do for 2 and a half hours?"

"I dunno, I think Frank and Rick were startin' a game of pool when I went upstairs, why don't we join in?" Liam offered. I nodded my head as we went down the stairs to the living room. Nobody gave me a second look which was reliving, unlike the care home I was when I was 10. They looked at me as if I had killed someone.

"Hey guys, mind if we join in?" I asked, picking up a pool cue

"Awww, look who decided to show up" Electra said sarcastically,

"Shut up, Electra," I said back to her

"A.K.A Mandy" Rick said under his breath, but loud enough for everyone else to hear. Everyone except Electra/Mandy started snickering. "Sure, Me and Frank, against Tess and Liam

"Alright, I'm fine with that" said Liam, as he grinned at me. I'm actually quite good at pool, another thing I like about my school is that our dorm has a pool table, table football and a pinball machine. We also have Pizza Hut nights, so good! We played pool twice, Liam and I one once, Rick and Frank won the other one

"Winner takes all?" I say

"Sure" Everyone else says. We played pool for another half hour, until Liam and I finally won

"Woo!" I yelled, doing a mini victory dance, which Liam joined in for. I checked my phone, it was 12. Austin and his foster family would be here in half an hour, but before I could get lost in my thoughts, my phone buzzed twice, once to show that the battery was running low, and another as a text from Austin.

"**Hey, I think we're going to be early, see you soon:)"** Was what it said, or at least that's what I thought it said. I went to my room and plugged my phone into my charger, put on my favourite purple feather earrings and my lucky purple shamballa, and put on my white Paul's Boutique watch on my other wrist. I went back downstairs; they should be here in about 10 minutes.

"How do I look?" I nervously asked Liam

"Fit."

"I always do!" I joked "But seriously, do I look alright?"

"Duh!" He said sarcastically. I laughed in relief and crashed on the sofa, I don't know where everyone else was, Gus was practising the piano, and Harry was in his room playing with Jeff. Apart from that I didn't know where everyone else went. I decided to go to Mike's office, since I didn't know if the test results had arrived yet.

"Mike?"

"Yes?"

"Are the DNA test results here yet?"

"Yep, we'll open them when Austin gets here." Mike said. A couple of seconds later, I heard a car pulling up over the pebbles in the front of the Dumping Ground. That's got to be them. I rushed over to the front door as if I was a 5 year old. They knocked on the door. I decided to wait for 5 seconds before I answered it. 5… 4… 3… 2… 1. I opened the door. There was a middle aged lady with tan skin and shoulder length black hair and brown eyes, and a man with olive skin, blue eyes and black hair. Behind them was Austin, wearing black jeans, green vans and a green T-shirt. Next to him was a girl who looked familiar, she had tan skin, long waist length red hair, and piercing blue eyes, she was wearing high waisted shorts and a long red and black cardigan.

"Hey Tess" Said Austin.

"Hey" Said the girl, as she waved, that's when it pretty much clicked. She was in the student council.

"Hey Jennette" I said, smiling at here, before getting out of Austin's foster families' way as they walked in. Mike shook their hands. I noticed that he had the test in the other hand. Once everyone had come in, everyone sat on the couch, and Mike handed me the test results.

"Ok, here we go." I say nervously. I felt like I was sweating buckets.

_**The following test concludes that Tessa Evitt-Riley, and Austin-Evitt-Riley are biological twins-**_Was all I bothered to read before I hugged Austin. I've found my family, all of them. Well that is providing that there isn't some other brother or sister out there. I don't think so though.

"So know we know, _sis_" Said Austin, with a smile on his face.

"Yeah bro, I wonder who's older." I say

"Why don't we say that I'm older, since I'm taller!" Austin replied

"No I want to be older!"

"I see Tess hasn't changed a bit" Jennette said, smiling at me.

"I really haven't, but I still want to be older!" I said

"Nope"

"…Fine Austin, you're the older twin" I sighed

"Good" Austin said, hugging me. It's at this moment that I think about Dad, and how I need to apologise


	27. Town

Austin went home at about 3. I had some homework due in the next day so I had started on it when Rick came up to me. I had done most of it, but I was stuck on my English Homework

"Tess, Liam, Frank and I are going to town today, wanna come?" Rick askes me

"Wish I could, got loads of homework due tomorrow"

"I'll help you afterwards"

"Ok sure, thanks!" I said as I saved what I had done so far and logged off. I went to my room, took off my purple shamballa and put on 6 rubber wristbands on my left wrist again, still in the order of the rainbow and left my white watch on my right. I put some make up on to cover up the nearly faded scratch on my face, it wasn't really noticeable, but it made me feel less paranoid about it if I covered it up. Whilst I was at it, I put on some mascara and eyeliner, before putting them all back. I sprayed my hair and brushed it, leaving it down. Finally, I got my Iphone and earphones and put them in my pockets, and then I went downstairs, where Liam was already down. He was wearing his purple hoodie, with black vans and jeans; He also had on a black beanie hat. I pulled it off of his head as I walked up to him

"Oi! What was that for?" Liam asked as I put his beanie over my head

"I'm wearing it"

"Aren't ya boilin'? Ya wearin' a jumper, it's only October!" Liam exclaims

"Not really, didn't you notice earlier?" I shrugged, "By the way, have I told you that my birthday's on Halloween?"

"No! That's only next week!" He says, surprised " So, 'ave ya got anything planned for Halloween then?"

"I'm going to my friends Halloween party, wanna come with me?" I ask

"Sure, sounds fun I guess"

"On one condition."

"Which is?"

"We're wearing matching costumes, I don't want any of the sluts in my school hitting on you" I say

"Ooh someone's getting' jealous!"

"Honestly, you won't like it either, just ask Austin."

"That reminds me, is he your brother?"

"Yep, but we don't know who's the older twin."

"What should we go as"

"Zombies" I said without hesitation,

"Zombie footballer and cheerleader?" He suggested, going one up on my idea

"Yep, and, I'm guessing that we'll be burger diving?" I ask, pushing up the sleeves of my jumper

"Ya know me so well Titch." He says, kissing my on the cheek. Nobody's in the living room, as everyone's fighting over the computer. A few seconds later, Rick and Frank go down the stairs

"Alright then, let's go!" Rick says, as he puts on his hoodie. We walked out of the dumping ground and walked to the bus stop. When we got on the bus, we sat at the front instead of the back.

"Oh god, I hope I don't get lost" I muttered to myself,

"Why?"Rick asked me

"Since I always get lost".

"Well I'll make sure that ya don't get lost Titch!" Liam says as he puts his arm around my waist

"PDA much?" Frank and Rick say in unison

"And?" Liam replies, "By the way, our stop's next." He pointed out. We all got up, and made our way downstairs. Liam moved his arm from my waist and entwined our fingers.

"And you wonder why you're going soft."

"Oi!"

"But it's cute." I say, getting on my tiptoes and kissing his cheek

"It's also cute how short ya are" He said, making me blush.

"Is anyone hungry?" I asked

"Me" said Rick

"Same here" Frank added

"And me" Liam said, as he and Frank went to check the bins. Rick and I stayed behind them, I dunno about Rick, but I really didn't want to go dumpster diving. Frank had got a burger and fish, while Liam had got a half-eaten portion of fish and chips. They walked along the shops pretending to eat them, until the bumped into 2 different guys. They did a convincing job of it though, if I didn't know any better, I would've thought that the strangers bumped into Frank and Liam.

"Oh I'm so sorry, How much did that cost?" One of them said to Liam

"Um, about a fiver?" Liam said. One of them handed him a tenner and told him to keep the change. The other muttered sorry to Frank, gave him 20 quid and hurried off.

"Alright, we've got £30, where should we go?"

"Mcdonalds!" Rick, Frank and Liam yelled in unison

"Meh, I'd rather get KFC"

"Ok you get some KFC, we'll get McDonalds" says Rick

"I'll go with Titch" says Liam

"I would say that I'll go on your own, but I'll get lost." I said, as Liam walked with me to KFC. I stuck to him like glue as there were loads of people in town.

"Hi what can I get you?" the Guy at the till said,

"Umm, I'll get a Godfather with Pepsi and chips" I said,

"I'll get the same" said Liam

"Ok that's £11.78." He said. I pressed the £20 note into his palm. After a few minutes, he gave me my food, and a napkin with his number on it

"Sorry, I have a boyfriend." I said, handing the napkin back, and then walking out with Liam. We stood outside KFC eating our burgers, once I was done with them, we threw the bags in the bin and waited for a few minutes, still no sign of Rick and Frank.

Great, where the hell have they gone? I asked, as Liam checked his phone

"They said that they did more burger diving and got enough money to go to Pizza 'ut." Liam said

"Should we get the costumes while we're here?" I suggested

"Sure, let's go" he replied, as we made our way to the costume shop.

**Thanks for reviewing! :D**

**I just realised that I have the same thing in KFC so many times that I know how much it costs! :P**

**Plus, I was thinking of having extra characters, a boy and a girl, who temporarily move to Elm Tree for a couple of days. Suggestions?**

**Name:**

**Age:**

**Reason for Being in Care:**

**Appearance:**

**Personality:**

**Extra Information:**

**How they meet Tess and/or Liam:**


	28. Halloween Costumes

**Quick thanks to:**

**licklewritergirlly*hands piece of cake**

**seddielover12*hands piece of cake**

**MsWildfire97*hands piece of cake**

**SkittlesAreMyLife*hands 2 pieces of cake since you reviewed every chapter:D**

**Mr Zeze *hands 2 pieces of cake since you also reviewed every chapter :D**

**Linneagb*hands piece of cake**

**Cookie05*hands piece of cake**

**immortalmorgana*hands piece of cake**

"So, how the hell are we going to afford the costumes?" I asked,

"Good question." Said Liam, "We… are going to have to burger dive again" He said, as he walked towards a nearby bin. He inspected the inside before pulling out two chip boxes, he handed one to me.

"Great. Well I guess we should bump into different people at different times." I said.

"Yep, I'll go first." Liam said, as he walked around to try and find someone to bump into. I stayed in the same place watching him. He bumped into a busy person in a hurry, who looked like a businessman, and Liam dropped the chips. The businessman said something to Liam, probably something along the lines of "Watch where you're going." before handing him some money. Liam came up to me, waving a £20 note.

"Your turn, try and look upset." Said Liam. I walked around, holding the box of chips in my hands, before somebody in a hurry crashed into me. I could see Liam laughing as I didn't even have to bump into them to fall over.

"I am so sorry!" The person said, helping me up. I took a quick look at him. He had a kind seeming face, and he was definitely in his early 20s.

"It's fine" I said, as I dusted myself off.

"Sorry, I'm in a rush" said the man as he rummaged through his bag, he handed me a £20 and ran off. I walked back to Liam, who was still laughing.

"Well done there Titch!" Liam said, still snickering. "'ave we got enough for the costumes?"

"Yeah I think so." I said, handing him the £20 note. We walked to the costume shop, which was on the other side of town. Most of the way there was spent by me yelling at Liam to slow down. Sometimes I don't get why I'm fine with running but hate walking. When we got to the costume shop the first thing I realized was how stuffy it was, as if the old woman who was in her mid-70s hadn't opened the door for 10 years. I tried to ignore the clammy stench which was suffocating me and start looking for the costumes. I found a cheerleader costume, it was blue. I checked all of the other rails and found a blue footballer costume, also in blue. I sighed and combed my fingers through the purple tips in my hair. I picked the costumes off of the rails and handed them to Liam

"Carry these." I said

"So I'm only 'ere to carry all ya things?"

"Pretty much." I said, as I checked the shelves for blue dye and zombie kits. "Should I get blue coloured contacts?"

"'ow should I know?" Liam replied, I sighed again and carried on looking for dye, zombie kits and contacts. After 10 minutes of looking I managed to find them.

"I hope this doesn't cost too much" I muttered, while I handed the old woman the things we were buying.

"That's £33 then." Said the woman. I handed her the money, took the costumes which were now in a bag, and waited for the change. When I got the change we finally left.

"Let's take a shortcut." Said Liam, as I handed him the bags

"You mean there was a shortcut, but instead we took the long way all the way here?!" I asked, as we went into the shortcut.

"Yep." Said Liam.

"What's the fucking point in that?"

"Ooh calm down Titch!" said Liam, as we walked to the bus stop. We ended up waiting for about 10 minutes for the bus to come. I got my phone and started playing random games until it arrived. We got on the bus and sat at the front of the top deck. "So Titch, 'ow are ya feelin' about 'avin a proper birthday?" asked Liam

"Weird, it's just new to me I guess." I said. Liam put his arm around my shoulder. "How long until we get home?"

"Like 15-20 minutes." Said Liam. I got my phone again and continued playing Temple Run

"Oi Titch, I'm right 'ere. " Liam said, putting his hand over my phone, covering the screen.

"Oi! I know you're here, but I wanted to beat your high score. I nearly did before you blocked the screen!" I replied.

"Play Jetpack Joyride, and I'll play mine at ta same time, then whoever gets ta most points wins." Said Liam.

"Alright." I said. We kept playing for another 10-15 minutes. When the bus got to our stop, we were still playing. We walked off the bus with our eyes still glued to the screens of our phones. After walking mindlessly towards the Dumping Ground for nearly the rest of the way, Liam won by bumping into me, and I nearly fell in a bush

"I win Titch!" Liam said, giving me one of his classic cheeky grins.

"By cheating" I whined.

"So what do I win?"

"We never mentioned winning anything." I said walking off, Liam grabbed my wrist and took a step closer to me, and raised my chin with his thumb and index finger. I looked into his chocolaty brown eyes, and felt my face start burning

"I still want a prize though." He said, and then he cupped my face and placed his lips on mine before I could say anything. His tongue trailed along my bottom lip, begging for entrance, I denied it though. After about 30 seconds, one of Liam's hands left my face and clamped down on my side, and when I opened my mouth in shock, he took the opportunity to slip his tongue into my mouth, we pulled away after 20 seconds.

"So definition of a prize is to shove your tongue in my mouth." I remarked, as we continued walking to the Dumping Ground where we would almost certainly get yelled at. I checked the time, it was 6 o'clock. I didn't get how we spent that much time in town. We went inside, luckily not even getting a second look. It was a relief to be hit by the warmth, which replaced the cold that slowly crept into my system. I took the bags from Liam and dropped them off at my room. Then I went into Rick's room, so that he could help me with my homework.

**Sorry About not updating for absolutely AGES!**

**So far if nobody submits anymore OC's I've got a pretty vague idea, but can I get some boy OCs? **

**I also came up with an Idea for a new story :3**

**Thanks for reviewing and my New Years resolution is to update more!**


	29. Happy Birthday to Me

**MASSIVE Thanks to:**

**blueskies11*Hands cookie**

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**Thank you for reviewing! :D**

I woke up at about 1 in the afternoon, usually I'm not tired when I wake up this late, but my mind decided to play visions of my birthday until 6 in the morning and keep me wide awake. I groaned and slowly pulled the covers off of me, and then swinging my legs off of the bed and getting up, mindlessly shuffling my feet along the carpet as I made my way to the wardrobe. This alone took me about 10 minutes. I threw on a dressing gown and continued dragging my feet along. I slowly stepped down the stairs walked to the living room, tying my hair into a ponytail

"Happy Birthday Tess!" Everyone yelled, except Electra, she was too busy on her phone, I ignored that though.

"Thanks guys, but how did you know?" I asked,

"Liam told Gus, who told everyone else." Tee answered, looking at Liam

"He overheard me and kept asking about it." Liam pointed out. I smirked at him and walked over to Liam, Rick and Frank, who were playing a game of pool

"Do you mind if the birthday girl joins in?" I asked.

"Sure Tess, we were just starting."

"As long as ya aren't as cranky as ya were in the morning!" said Liam

"What did I do?" I said, my memory was fuzzy

"Whacked me in ta face with a pillow when I tried ta wake ya up."

"Shouldn't have tried to wake me up then" I said as Rick passed me a pool cue. "Since there are only 2 cues, I'll go with Tess, and Liam, you go with Frank."

"Alright." I said, as Rick handed me the pool cue. I started first, then Frank, then Rick, then Liam. We played for about 20 minutes, until we both drew.

"Winner takes all?" Rick suggested

"Can we do something else instead?" I asked

"Video games?" Liam suggested. We nodded our heads in agreement. Liam and Rick started playing FIFA 13, I decided to sit out due to a lack of interest in football. I got my phone and started playing random games, until Liam pinched my sides

"When's ya friend picking us up?"

"5" I replied.

"Where did you put the costumes? I spent ages looking for them" asked Liam.

"Fine I'll give you your costume." I said, getting up and walking to my room to get the costume, Liam went with me. I rummaged through all the stuff under my bed, pulled out Liam's costume and handed it to him.

"I swear you are hopeless at finding things. Put the costume on later, I can't be bothered to be in a zombie costume for 2 hours and then get picked up"

"Ya don't need a zombie costume to look like a zombie." Said Liam, as he gave me one of his classic grins. It didn't stop me hitting him though.

"They why are you going out with me if I look like a zombie?" I asked

"Maybe I have a thing for 'em." Liam replied

"You'd be weird."

"But I'd still have a thing for zombies."

"Am I a pretty zombie?" I asked

"Duh!" He said,

"I'm going to get ready, since I have to dye my hair." I said.

"Alright." Liam said, as he left my room. I got the dye from the bag and went to the bathroom. I combed the dye through the tips of my hair, making sure that I covered all of the purple in my hair. After 20 minutes of tirelessly waiting, I washed out the dye and frantically dried my hair. The tips were now electric blue, instead of its usual purple. I admired it for a few moments and put everything away. I went back to my room and put on the cheerleader costume, and then I got the zombie costume. I put the grey power over my face, arms and legs, and put black eye shadow all around my eyes, then I got the fake blood and put most of it around my mouth, and on my arms and legs. I took a look in the mirror, I looked dead, but I guess that's how I was supposed to look. I rummaged through my wardrobe and found a pair of white trainers in my bag and put them on, and then I put my Iphone in the side of my shoe, since I didn't have pockets on my costume. As I left my room I bumped into Liam. Our first reactions were to laugh at each other in shock at the same time. He looked pretty much like a zombie in his costume. I took my phone out of my shoe.

"I need to take a picture." I said.

"Of us?"

"Yep, and I'm tagging this as 'My First Birthday'" I said, as Liam put his arm around my waist. I put my phone in front of us and took about 3 pictures, Liam took another one of us both doing funny faces.

"I wonder if we're ta only people dressed in costumes." Said Liam

"It's a costume party, I doubt that. But even if that happens, at least we didn't disappoint." I said, flicking through the photos we just took.

"True, wanna play some video games, everyone 'as ta see us sooner or later." Said Liam

"Fine." I said, mentally picturing everyone's reactions. "By the way is it cold outside?" I asked him

"Kinda, why?"

"This skirt is so short." I said, feeling like some of the cliché girls in my year who roll their skirts up way too high.

"Yeah I noticed." Said Liam.

"Let me get a hoodie then." I said, walking back to my room. I quickly got a black zip up hoodie and put it on, before going back to Liam.

"Ready to get laughed at?"

"Yep, I know you're used to it." I said.

"Oi!"

"You said I look like a zombie, I guess we're even." I pointed out, shutting Liam up. We walked down the stairs, expecting the worst. Carmen, Lily, Tee, Tyler, Johnny, Rick, Electra and Frank were there. Surprise, surprise, the moment they saw us they burst out laughing.

"Wow, you guys are really into Halloween!" Carmen said, holding back laughs

"I'm guessing you guys are trick or treating?"

"Nope, we're going to a party, I guess we'll go trick or treating if it sucks."

"And what will Mike say?" asked Tee

"What Mike doesn't know won't hurt him. But can you guys cover for us? Just say we went trick or treating." I asked

"Sure"

"What if it's a regular party?" Asked Tyler

"It's a costume party. If it's not, then, I guess we'd get extra points for trying" I said, as I checked my phone, it's 4.45.

"Rick I need you to help cover for me."

"How?" He asked

"If Mike asks where we went, say we went trick or treating."

"Alright, but you owe me one." Said Rick.

"Fine by me." I said. Liam and I left through the door. If we were going to be trick or treating it wouldn't make sense to go out the window

"Where ta car? Liam asked, the chilly winds hit me instantly.

"I told them to park down the road so Mike wouldn't see them. Let's get there quickly I'm fucking freezing!" I said, as we walked down the road towards Keira's brother's car. We got in the back. Keira was sitting in the front seat

"Hey Tess, love your costumes!" said Keira, and then she noticed Liam, "I remember him! He was with you when you were grocery shopping for your care home!"

"Yep."

"Are you guys going out now?!" Keira asked, as if she was waiting for us to go out.

"Keira!" I yelled in embarrassment

"Yeah we are now." Said Liam.

"Fiinally, I thought you guys looked good together!" Said Keira, as her brother started the car. I realised that he had his headphones in. I put my earphones in and listened to music, while Keira quizzed Liam on extremely random things. When we got there, Liam stared at Keira's house in shock.

"Ya didn't tell me Keira was rich!" said Liam, as he stood outside the car,

"I'm not rich!" Keira yelled

"Sure…" I trailed off, as we went into her house. "Please tell me everyone else is wearing costumes."

"They are, I just haven't changed into mine yet, I'm going to change now, I'll be down soon." Said Keira, as she went up the stairs to her room. We waited in the living room, watching TV in the living room.

"So what's it like at ya school Titch?" Liam asked to break the painfully awkward silence.

"It's alright, some girls are complete slags though, if they turn up I bet they'll be all over you." I replied.

"I'll just tell 'em that I've got a girlfriend."

"That won't change anything for them." I said, making Liam laugh. Liam changed the channel to Match of the Day, whilst I went on my phone. After another 25 minutes Keira was done getting ready, she was wearing short Queen of Hearts from Alice in Wonderland costume, with Black . The costume suited her, with her flaming red hair tied into a topknot, and red lipstick.

"What do you think Tess?" Keira asked me,

"Good choice, it looks good on you." I said, I got my phone and took a picture

"Why are you taking pictures?" Keira asked, with a puzzled expression on her face

"I'm making a Halloween album." I lied, I didn't get round to telling everyone that it was my birthday, most of them didn't know that I was abandoned.

"Oh alright. By the way, what time is it?"

"6. When does the party start?" I replied

"6." Keira replied, as the doorbell rang. "I'll get it." She said, hurrying off to the front door. Since I was guessing that people were starting to arrive, I switched off the TV and put my phone in the side of my shoe again, hoping that it wouldn't fall out. When Keira opened the door, about 20 people came in at once.

"Shit! Keira, how many people did you invite?"

"Lots, I don't even know half of the people coming." Keira replied bluntly, as more crowds of people pushed their way in.

"Hey Tess!" said one of my friends, Rylie, she had dyed her blonde hair dark brown, and she was wearing a Tinkerbell costume and she had dyed her dark brown hair platinum blonde, and she had straightened her hair so that it went to her waist. The emerald green of the dress matched her emerald green eyes

"Hey Rylie!" I said, "Where's Laura and Texas?" I asked

"They're not here yet, so wher's your boyfriend?" Rylie asked

"How did you know?"

"Keira called me, Texas and Laura, her voice was so high pitched I nearly went deaf!" said Rylie. "So where is he?" She asked again, and I looked around to see where he went, until I felt someone pinch me sides. I turned around to see who it was, surprise, surprise, it was Liam.

"Ow! Can you stop pinching my sides?!" I yelled, rubbing my sides

"Sorry Titch, who don't ya introduce me to ya friend?" Liam asked.

"Is this him then?" Rylie asked me, raising an eyebrow

"Yep. Liam this is Rylie, Rylie this is Liam." I said.

"You guys seem like a good couple" said Rylie. At that moment some guys start talking to Liam.

"I know 'em from primary school, and some of 'em went ta the same care 'ome." Liam explained. I smiled at him and turned back to my friends.

"Thank god we don't have school on Monday." Said Rylie

"We don't?"

"Yeah it's a bank holiday." Rylie told me.

"When did they say that?" I asked

"In assembly, you were too busy sleeping on Keira's shoulder. I don't even get how you didn't get caught!" Rylie said, making us both laugh, at that point, Laura and Texas come up to us,

"Hey guys!" They said in unison. Laura was wearing a Superwoman costume, and Texas was wearing a Batwoman costume. I took pictures of everyone individually, and in a group

"Hey" We replied, as more floods of people came in. Then came a person none of us wanted to see. Her name's Christina Hughes. Keira can't stand her and they get in a fight whenever they talk. She's one of those cliché slags. We used to be best friends, until she slept with Keira's boyfriend and spread rumours about everyone. Here goes another fight.

"What are you doing here?! This is my party!" Keira yelled, I decided to stay out of it, because I had a feeling that the same thing would happen, Keira makes fake tan jokes about Christina, then they get in a fight.

"So?"

"So I want you to leave." Keira said firmly.

"How about… no." she said. Her eyes scanned the room we were in, until she laid eyes on Liam, who was at the opposite side of the living room, talking to some guys. "Never seen him before." She said, as she started to walk towards him. "Stacey, he's got a girlfriend" Keira added

"Doesn't matter, I can make him forget about her in a heartbeat." Stacey said, as she applied a layer of gloss to her already shiny lips. The very thing I was dreading was going to happen, and instead of getting angry, I did the thing nobody expected me to do, which was burst out laughing,

"Ummm, Tess? Why are you laughing? She's going to try and flirt with your boyfriend!" Rylie asked me.

"Because, she's crap at flirting!" I said, trying to hold it back.

"True, this I've gotta see, but are you sure you're not mad?" Rylie asked

"Yep," I said, as a smirk came up on my face. Liam had a look of pure discomfort on his face as Christina tried to flirt with him, then all of a sudden she grabbed his shirt and tried to pull Liam closer to her, but he pushed her away. At this time we were all laughing so hard we couldn't breathe. "I guess I'll have to bail Liam out now." I said, as I walked over to him

"Alright get off of him." I said to Christina calmly, trying not to burst out laughing

"Why? I can make him forget about his girlfriend in seconds"

"Sorry whateva ya name is, but ya can't" Liam said, as he pushed her off of him one last time and walked over to me.

"Fine, I'm Christina, and you?"

"Have a girlfriend, and she's right there." Said Liam, as he pointed to me. Christina glared at me with a look of complete rage in her face, if looks could kill, I would have definitely been dead. She finally turned on her heel and stomped off.

"Thank god she's gone." I said, still snickering

"Why are ya laughin'?"

"B-Because, she was trying to flirt with you, and she just failed!" I said.

"Wait you saw that?" He asked.

"Yep, Keira got mad at her and she saw you. I told her you had a girlfriend, but that didn't change anything."

"When ya said some of the girls don't take no for an answer, ya weren't kiddin'" Liam remarked. I quickly got my phone from my shoe and checked the time, it was 7.50.

"Liam we need to go before Mike suspects something" I said to Liam

"Alright,"

"Keira, can your brother drop us off now? My head careworker doesn't know that I'm here."

"Um, sure, should I go with you?" She offered

"You don't have to." I answered

"Don't worry I'll come with you, by the way, where does he think you've gone?"

"Trick or Treating." I answered

"He'll think something's up if you haven't got any sweets." Keira pointed out. Shit, I didn't think of that. "Wait here." She said, before walking off to her kitchen, Liam and I waited for a few minutes until Keira returned with 2 shopping bags full of sweets.

"Shit, where did you get these!" I asked

"Snack table." Keira said,

"There was a snack table?!"

"Think of it as a party bag." Keira said, as we got in the car. There wasn't any traffic, surprisingly, so we got back to Elm Tree at half past 8. As soon as we got in, we walked into Mike

"How long does it take to go trick or treating?!" Mike asked us, obviously annoyed

"Sorry Mike, we got carried away." I lied, gesturing to the bags Keira gave us.

"Next time you get here this late I'll have to sanction you."

"Ok Mike," we said in unison, as we went to the living room and sat down.

"So how was it?" asked Frank.

"It was fun, until this girl in my year started hitting on Liam." I said, snickering. I got my bag, went to my room and dropped it on my bed, and then I changed into purple shorts and a grey t-shirt. I went to the bathroom and washed all the make-up and fake blood off of my face, which took me about 15 minutes, and then I that I would dye my hair back tomorrow, I took out the contacts and went back to my room. I stared at my homework, and decided that I would do that tomorrow as well, since it was a bank holiday. I got my phone and texted Austin.

"**Hey do you want to come over tomorrow?**"

"**Yeah sure, when?**" Austin replied

"**Um, like 1?**"

**"Yeah that's fine, see you then sis**" he said. I plugged my phone into my charger, pushed the bag full of sweets off of the bed and climbed under the covers, awaiting tomorrow.


	30. Cheat

**Massive Thanks to:**

**Sunshineeee1*hands cupcake**

**DrBangelWho*****hands cupcake, also funny you should say that because both of those are in this chapter**

**SkittlesAreMyLife*****hands cupcake**

**Mr Zeze*****hands cupcake**

**Cookie05*****hands cupcake**

**Linneagb*****hands cupcake**

**MsWildfire97*****hands cupcake**

I was woken up at 10 by Gus' and Gina's screaming, the shock made me roll out of bed making a thump. I groaned in pain and slowly scrambled to my feet, before paying attention to what Gus and Gina were shouting about. I made out that Tyler scribbled all over Gus' notebooks, and it was time for breakfast. I was surprised that I could sleep through this nearly every weekend. I put on some black slippers and went down the stairs; I walked down the stairs and sat down next to Tee and Tyler, when I got to the dining room. Gina had made pancakes; it was obvious that Tracy didn't make them as people were actually eating them. I put 3 on my plate and poured syrup over them. It was strangely awkward, as nobody was talking, which is unusual at the Dumping Ground.

"Pinch, Punch, first of the month, no returns!" I yelled at Tyler when I remembered that it was the first of November, and then doing the same to Tee, since I remembered that it was the first of November. It was only a matter of moments before everyone else started doing the same. When I had nearly finished my pancakes that I remembered that Austin was coming over at 1 today, and I hadn't told Mike. I'm sure it'll be fine with him, Austin's my brother, and Mike's kinder than most care workers. I finished the last of my food and put it in the sink, and then I went to Mike's office and knocked on the door 3 times.

"Come in." said Mike, as I pulled the door, before realizing that I was supposed to push it.

"Hi Mike, I was wondering… can Austin come over today?" I asked.

"Sure, when?" Mike asked me, he was reading through page after page of paperwork.

"Um, 1?"

"Yeah that's fine."

"Thanks Mike!" I said. I left and shut the door behind me and jogged up the stairs to the bathroom, where I had a quick shower, and changed into a pair of ripped jeans, my purple , and Liam's purple Adidas hoodie which was lying around in my bedroom. I brushed my hair and left it down. I put my phone in my pocket and went downstairs. I crashed out on the sofa and went on my phone as I had nothing better to do. I did that for an hour straight. I was about to challenge Rick to a game of pool when I noticed a chess set on the coffee table. When I was in Burnywood with Rick and Tyler, someone stole money from the office, and Dennis decided to ban all electronics, so Rick and I learnt to play chess so that we didn't die of boredom

"Hey Rick, fancy a game of chess?"

"Alright." said Rick, as he put the pool cue on the table and sat on the other side of the chess set.

"I'll be black, you can be white." I said, turning the board around. The first 10 minutes was just both of us moving the pieces in place, after about 8 minutes of wondering what to do, I had an idea. When Rick took his turn, he moved the rook in front of my queen; the bishop was blocking it though. My turn, I moved the knight out into a different position. After he took his turn, I moved the bishop out of the way, hoping that he would take the bait.

"I took your queen I'm winning!" said Rick.

"Check, and mate." I said, moving the knight. The look of surprise on Rick face was priceless

"Did you cheat?" Rick asked me, raising his eyebrows

"How would I have been able to with you watching me every move?" I asked

"True." Said Rick. "Rematch?" he suggested

"Why not play a game of pool?" I suggested.

"Alright, I bet I'll beat you."

"Yep, because you're the alleged king of pool." I said.

"You know it." Said Rick, as he walked over to the pool table and handed me a cue. Unsurprisingly Rick won.

"I should've made a bet on this." Said Rick

"Oi, don't rub it in my face!" I said. "Winner takes all?"

"Sure" Rick shrugged. Not long after that Liam and Frank came up to us.

"Mind if we join in?" asked Frank.

"Sure, I'll go with Rick, Frank goes with Liam." I said.

"So that's where me 'oodie went." Liam whispered in my ear, reminding me that I was still wearing his hoodie

"Can I wear it for a bit longer? It's surprisingly comfy." I asked

"Fine." Liam sighed, as I took my turn. Rick and I won after 20 minutes of everyone teasing and taunting each other

"Yay!" I yelled, doing a victory dance, which Rick joined in on. The bell rang, and I checked my phone, it was 20 past 1. "I'll get it!" I yelled, as I walked over to the door, to see Austin and his foster sister Jennifer.

"Hey Austin, hi Jennifer." I said, waving at her, she smiled weakly, as Austin came in and she went back in the car.

"Hey Tess, have you done the homework?"

"Asking about homework? Someone's eager for school tomorrow." I said, making Austin laugh

"I haven't, but have you?"

"Nope, while you're here can you help me?" I asked..

"Sure."

"Be warned, that might take a while." I added, as we went up the stairs and went into my room. I grabbed my schoolbag and got my homework out, as Austin got his. We spent about an hour and a half finishing it, most of that was Austin showing me how to do it properly. I put my homework back in my bag and put it in the corner.

"I can't even read my own handwriting!" I said.

"It's better than mine." Said Austin.

"Bullshit, you need to get your eyes checked if my handwriting's better than yours." I said. Austin just laughed. "Why don't we go downstairs?" Austin offered

"Sure." I said, as I got up from my bed, as we went downstairs. We sat on the couch and started watching TV,

"I wanna watch America's Next Top Model!" I yelled, grabbing the remote from the table

"I'd rather watch Top Gear." Austin said, as he took the remote from me.

"America's Next Top Model." I said firmly, taking the remote again

"Top Gear." He said, once again taking the remote. The argument over the TV remote lasted for about half an hour, until Austin gave up and handed the remote over

"Yay!"

"I should get the final say though." Austin muttered, but I still heard it.

"Why?"

"Since I'm the older twin!"

"We don't even know who's older!"

"But I look older."

"I'm guessing that's because I'm short." I asked. Austin nodded his head. "You're so nice." I said sarcastically. We watched TV for about an hour and a half. We could faintly hear a car beeping from the outside.

"Well I guess my foster parents are here now, see ya Tess." Said Austin. He gave me a quick hug before he left. Electra was screaming at Liam because once again he'd stolen her diary, and she was chasing him around the Dumping Ground. I left the living room since nobody was there, and I went to my room again. On the way to my room I could see Electra, banging on the door of the attic, I guess he found a new place to barricade himself in. I got my guitar and tried to play the guitar, but Frank was playing his music on too loud so I couldn't hear properly. So I picked up my guitar and went to the living room, where it was much quieter but Gus was practicing the piano and he was getting annoyed since he hates being interrupted, I don't blame him. Finally I checked the attic, to see if Electra had gotten her diary back and left. I saw that the door knob was missing, so Electra must have forced her way in somehow. I pushed the door open, and I didn't hear any noise, so I made my way up the stairs. All I remembered before having another black out, was seeing Electra and Liam kissing. My mind kept skipping; first I pictured me yelling at Electra, all of a sudden Liam had a red mark in the shape of a hand on his face, and he was holding one of my hands, I was guessing that I slapped him across the face. My mind skipped again, and all of a sudden, I was in my room, and my guitar was at the opposite side of the wall. On closer inspection, the guitar neck was cracked, and all the strings had snapped. At this point I'd had it. I could feel the silent tears running down my face as I held my guitar. It was a fake birthday present from my favorite social worker, I hadn't grown much since then so it was still fine for me. I guess this would have happened sooner or later; boys are more trouble than they're worth, some things never change. And just when I thought that everything was getting better…


	31. That Was My Favorite Guitar

**Thanks to:**

**Mr Zeze*****hands piece of cake**

**MsWildfire97*****hands piece of cake**

**Linneagb*****hands piece of cake**

**Cookie05*****hands piece of cake**

**DrBangelWho*****hands piece of cake**

**SkittlesAreMyLife*****hands piece of cake**

**liccklewritergirllyy*****hands piece of cake**

****The Next Day

I was woken up at 6.30 by the painstakingly annoying beeping of my alarm clock, pulling me from the deep sleep I was in. I groaned and got up, turning off the alarm clock. I grabbed a towel and went to the bathroom. Nobody else was awake so I didn't have to queue for the bathroom, like I usually have to do. I showered and got dry quickly. I checked my hair in the mirror, the ends of my hair were dyed back to purple, and I found this odd as I didn't recall dying it back, but at the same time, I couldn't remember anything from yesterday apart from Austin coming over and Liam and Electra kissing. I must've blacked it all out. I brushed my hair, got changed into my uniform and got my school bag. Before I went downstairs I took one last check in the mirror. I pulled on the purple and black striped tie a bit more, and folded the sleeves of my blazer up to just below my elbows. I put on my black creepers, put on my white rubber watch, and went downstairs. I checked the time on my watch; it was only quarter past 7. I was bored of all the things on TV so I lied on the sofa and put in my earphones and listened to music until Mike was ready to take me to school. I didn't talk or make eye contact with anyone. I felt someone yank out one of my earphones after a while though

"We need ta talk." I heard a familiar cockney voice say.

"We're talking right now" I replied bitterly, understandably I was still pissed off. I was going to put my earphone back in, but Liam stopped me. I looked over to him; he was sitting next to me on the couch.

"Ya know what I'm on about."

"If I do talk to you, we'll talk later." I snapped.

"But when are we gonna 'ave ta time ta talk? Ya're not gonna be back till Saturday." Said Liam

"Then we'll talk on Saturday." I said, not making eye contact

"But-"

"It's either Saturday or not at all." I said, my eyes were still glued on my phone.

"Fine." Sighed Liam, before he left with Rick, and Frank to walk to school

"Alright, Tess, let's go." Said Mike.

"O-Ok" I said, going upstairs to get my suitcase, and then going outside to Mike's car. I got in the passenger seat, and then Mike started the car and drove to school. I played Airplanes by B.O.B and Hayley Williams on loop until we got to the school.

"Thanks Mike." I said, smiling at him, and then getting my bag and suitcase out of the car

"See you on Saturday." Said Mike, before he drove off back to the Dumping Ground. I slung the strap of my bag over my shoulder and dragged my suitcase full of clothes to my dorm room. I knocked on the door to see if anyone was still in there.

"Come in." said Keira. I pushed the door open and dragged my suitcase into my bed.

"Hey Tess." Laura, Texas, Rylie and Keira said in unison

"Hey." I said, half-heartedly.

"Are you okay Tess?" Rylie asked. That girl can read me like an open book

"Yeah, I'm fine." I lied,

"Something's up, tell us." Said Laura

"Fine, but I'll tell you in breakfast." I said.

"Ok, wait for us then." Said Keira. I sat on my bed and waited for them to finish getting ready. Once they were done, we slowly made our way to the canteen. I got my breakfast which was 2 croissants and some hot chocolate, and sat at the first empty table I could see and saved the seats for everyone else.

"Ok, spill." Said Rylie. I sighed and explained everything to them. That I was in care, and I was abandoned in a dustbin, how I found my Dad and sister, how Mum committed suicide, How Austin was actually my twin brother, my real birthday being on Halloween, and finally when I saw Electra kissing Liam and me having blackouts. This took so long that it took all of breakfast and the walk to our form room for me to finish explaining everything

"Holy, shit. Tess why didn't you tell us all this?" asked Laura

"It was just complicated for me I guess, sorry guys." I said, looking down.

"We need to get you a late birthday present!" Keira yelled. I laughed.

"Sorry about all this." Rylie said, hugging me.

"It's fine, really. By the way I think we need to hurry up. " I said, checking my watch.

"Oh yeah we need to be at the form room in 3 minutes." Said Texas. We powerwalked to our form room which was in the main block on the top floor, meaning we had to go up 4 flights of stairs. We got in just in time, and sat in our seats trying to catch our breath from running up the stairs.

"What lessons do we have today?" I asked.

"We've got Music, DT, Maths, English and French." Keira replied.

"Great." I muttered. Most of tutor period was the teacher yelling at everyone. In Music we had to make covers of songs. Since I had a scholarship for music I had to do 4 instead of just one. I had already done 2, Lego House by Ed Sheeran, and Diamonds by Rihanna, now I had to find 2 more. We all got to pick 2 instruments, other than that we could use a piano or a keyboard. I picked the violin, and the guitar. We also had recorders, so we could use multiple rhythms. I was allowed to go outside. Keira and Laura also went outside, but they know that there's no point in talking to my when I play, it's like talking to Gus during his piano practice. The main reason I like music so much is that whenever I play, I can just forget everything else. I took my violin and a guitar; I would go inside if I was going to play a keyboard. I sat outside wondering what to play, when I decided to play Bittersweet Symphony by The Verve. I recorded all the rhythms and then played them all at once. Then I recorded myself singing the lyrics. Doing that took the rest of the lesson. Once I'd put everything away, I made my way to DT, with Rylie and Laura. We were doing Textiles and we had to make pillow cases. Everything the teacher said sounded like mindless droning to me, and I struggled to stay awake. We didn't even do any sewing. After DT we had break.

"Hey Tess, how are you feeling?" Keira asked me. She was obviously referring to Liam

"I'm fine." I lied, honestly whenever I thought about it, I felt angry and disappointed, and confused.

"Bullshit Tess, that happened yesterday." Said Keira. "Why don't we both lie and say we feel too ill to stay in school and spent the rest of the day in our dorms?" Keira offered.

"Sure, shouldn't we ask everyone else?" I asked.

"Nope, I need some catch up time with my BFF."said Keira, smiling at me.

"Thanks, now if you'll excuse me, I'm going to lie and say I sprained my ankle." I said, smiling back

"I'll say I've got a migraine." Said Keira. We both got up, and went to the reception. At that moment I saw some of the guys in the basketball team come up to us. Jacob went up to Keira, while Austin came up to me.

"Hey Tess, where are you going?" he asked.

"I'm pretending to sprain my ankle so hopefully I don't have to sit through the rest of school." I explained.

"Want a piggyback? It'll make it seem more realistic." Austin offered.

"Sure." I said, as I climbed onto Austin's back. Keira climbed on Jacob's. They gave us both piggybacks to the medical room, and sat with us for half an hour until they let us go to our dorms. Austin and Jacob gave us piggyback rides to our dorm room so that they could be late for Geography. We climbed off of them when we were outside our dorm room.

"Cheers guys." I said as I hugged Austin, Keira hugged Jacob and we went into the dorm. "Wow I'm parched." I said, once we'd gotten in.

"Good thing I brought tons of fizzy drinks, movies and my laptop." Said Keira, as she handed me a 500ml bottle of Sprite

"Good thing I brought the sweets you gave me." I said, as I unzipped my suitcase and brought out the bag full of sweets.

"Since nobody's around, explain exactly what happened yesterday with you and Liam."

"I did in breakfast." I pointed out.

"I know, but in more detail." Said Keira

"Fine" I sighed "Basically, Austin came over, we did our homework, then we watched TV after having an argument over the remote, Then Austin went home, and Electra was chasing Liam, since Liam stole her diary, Electra was the girl I saw kissing Liam. Eventually Liam locked himself into the attic, and I saw Electra banging on the door. I was looking for a quiet place to play my guitar, and I couldn't find anywhere, until I saw that Electra wasn't at the attic anymore, and the door knob was missing, so I was guessing that she'd got her diary back. I pushed the door open and went upstairs, and that's when I saw them kissing. After that I had the blackouts, and then my guitar was on the other side of my room. I think I threw it. The neck was cracked and all the strings had snapped" I explained. Keira gave me a hug.

"That sucks."

"Yep, that was my favourite guitar." I muttered, Keira burst out laughing

"Have you guys talked since?"

"We talked today, Liam wanted to talk, but I said that we'd talk on Saturday. Honestly I'm not sure if I really want to." I answered

"You are going to talk to him, at least so you know what's going on." Said Keira

"But-"

"You will talk to him, even if I have to drag you there." Keira butted in. The worst part is that I could actually picture her doing that.

"Fine." I sighed. Keira and I watched Mean Girls 1 and 2 until everyone else got back. No matter how much I tried not to think about Liam and Electra, thy still kept popping up in my mind.

Hey Tess, I got the music department to give you a replacement guitar, until you get your's fixed." said Rylie, as he handed me a black and white guitar,

"Thanks!" I said. It still felt like a bittersweet moment to me, I had a guitar to play, but it wasn't my one.

"Play us something!" yelled Laura

"Like?"

"Anything" said Laura. I laughed and started playing The Lazy Song. I felt a surge of relief flow through me when I was playing. It may sound stupid, but for me the guitar's like a lifesaver.

**Thanks for reading this (filler) chapter!**

**Review? :3**


	32. Bowling

** Thank you for 150 reviews! Didn't think I'd get that much :'D**

**MASSIVE Thanks to:**

**Sunshineeee1*hands cupcake**

**Beth Jayde 2013*****hands cupcake**

**strawberrymagic01*****hands cupcake* and thanks for your advice, i'll try to follow that from now on :)**

**SkittlesAreMyLife*****hands cupcake**

**breather89*****hands cupcake**

**MsWildfire97*****hands cupcake**

**Cookie05*****hands cupcake**

**DrBangelWho*****hands cupcake**

**Mr Zeze*****hands cupcake**

Skipping to Saturday

It was 2 o' clock. I was wearing a multi-coloured Aztec print skirt, a black top, an oversized denim shirt which went to my mid-thigh, with black tights, black and a black beanie hat. School was finally over for the week and now I was waiting for Mike to pick me up. The school let me borrow a replacement guitar until I do something about my guitar, so I was also carrying that. I got bored of holding it after 10 minutes and slung the strap around my neck. I was listening to music so I wouldn't get bored. Not long after that Mike's car pulled up.

"Hi Mike." I said as I put my suitcase, school bag and replacement guitar in the back of the car and got in the passenger seat.

"Hi Tess, why do you have another guitar?" asked Mike

"The guitar neck of my guitar broke so they gave me a replacement until I can get my guitar fixed." I explained, before putting my earphones back in and listening to music until we got to the Dumping Ground. I picked up the new guitar and slung it round my shoulder again, and put my school bag on the other shoulder, so my hands were free to take my suitcase as well, so I wouldn't have to make 2 trips. Once I got in I saw Carmen chasing Tyler, she was covered in foam so Tyler must've booby trapped the girls toilet. I mentally made a not to not go there and carried my things upstairs to my room. I heard a knock on my door.

"Come in." I sighed, I was guessing that It was Liam. Unexpectedly, it was Carmen, she still had traces of foam on her.

"Hey Carmen." I said, as I put my things back in my wardrobe

"Hi, by the way we're going bowling today."

"We are, when did anyone say this?"

"Mike told everyone before he went to pick you up, he told me to tell you."

"Alright, thanks Carmen." I said

"Also, can I borrow some jeans? These are my last clean ones and I don't feel like wearing one of my skirts." Asked Carmen.

"Sure." I said as I searched through my wardrobe and found a pair of black jeans. I handed them to Carmen

"Thanks!" said Carmen as she left. I quickly brushed my hair and put my beanie hat back on. I got the new guitar out and tried to play a few notes, it was better than nothing, but it didn't feel right to me. I ignored it, hoping that I would get used to it in time. I heard another knock on my door.

"Who is it?" I asked.

"Rick." said Rick, as he opened the door and came in, holding his guitar. "Hey Tess."

"Hey" I said, as Rick sat on the bed next to me.

"What's up with Liam? I'm sure you know."

"What do you mean?" I asked

"Come off it Tess, he's been moping about for the whole week. He's been mumbling, saying that he blew it but he won't say what he did." Said Rick.

"Fine then, I was guessing that Electra would've told everyone." I sighed, as Rick sat down on the bed

"Basically, when my brother went home, Electra was chasing Liam, since he stole her diary. I was looking for a spot to play my guitar, eventually I went to the attic, and then I saw them kissing." I sighed.

"I don't know how to comment on that, but if would talk to Liam, at least so you know what's going on." Said Rick.

"Thanks Rick." I said, hugging him, before he left my room. I got my earphones and left my room. I went down the stairs and out of the Dumping Ground and into the minivan, I sat at the back as usual as once again it was the only seat remaining and plugged my earphones into my ears. I was listening to music with the sound on nearly as loud as it could get so I couldn't hear that much else. I felt someone yank out my left earphone again, I turned around to face them, guessing that it was Liam.

"What now?" I asked in an exasperated manner.

"Ya said we'd talk today." exclaimed Liam.

"Fine then, look me in the eyes and explain what happened" I said, folding my arms.

"Alright, well ya know when ya brother left?" Liam asked, I nodded my head as the car started to leave. "Well I nicked Electra's diary, and I was readin' it, then she caught me and chased me round ta whole of the Dumping Ground. Then I ran in ta attic and put a chair at ta door so she couldn't get in. She must've used a drill since she took ta doorknob off. Then when she caught me, she 'eard ya comin' up the stairs, and then she kissed me." Liam explained, throughout the whole time I was looking into his eyes, I couldn't detect even a trace of dishonesty. I sighed and looked at my knees as I put my feet on the seat in front of me.

"I really wish I could stay mad at you, but, I can't." I admitted.

"Does this mean I'm forgiven?" Liam asked

"Yep, but if anything like that happens again, I swear I'll end up killing both of you." I said, Liam laughed and put his arm around my waist. I still wasn't sure whether to believe him or not,

"I missed ya Titch." Said Liam

"And this is why you're going soft" I said, kissing him on the cheek.

"Oi!" He said.

"What did Electra's diary say?" I asked.

"It 'ad loads of soppy poems in it, Electra took ta diary back before I saw anything else." Said Liam. I laughed while I put my earphones back in and listened to music to pass the time, whilst I gazed out of the window watching trees go past, until we arrived. I just wanted to forget this, but I doubt that would be possible. When we finally arrived after 27 boring minutes, we got out of the minivan, and went into the bowling alley. We got our bowling shoes and went to the lanes. We had to get 2 since there were too many people. We drew names out of a hat, I was with Liam, Rick, Tyler, Harry, Electra, Carmen and Tracy, while everyone else was in the lane next to us. Since I was going first, I picked up a ball and was about to throw, but Liam jumped on my back the second I let go.

"Liam… get off of me!" I croaked out, although I was surprised that I was able to carry Liam, even if it was only for about a minute. What surprised me further was that I got a strike anyway! "In your face Mr O' Donovan!" I yelled once he got off of me

"Ya're stronger than ya look Titch!" Liam said, stifling a laugh, as he put his arm around my waist. Everyone else was too focused on watching everyone else to notice us, thankfully. When It was Liam's turn, I pushed him as he was letting go of the ball,

"Still got 9!" said Liam. An hour and a half, which was enough time for Liam, Rick, Tyler and I to get through 4 bags of chips, 2 pizza's and 7 slush puppies, everyone was done bowling. Harry came first, then me, then Tyler, then Liam, Electra, Rick and Tracy. We got our normal shoes and went back into the minivan. On the way home I plugged in my earphones and leaned against Liam's shoulder, so far, everything's back to normal, or at least I hope it is.


	33. New Kids

**Loads of Thanks to:**

**Guest*hands cookie**

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**strawberrymagic01*hands cookie**

**liccklewritergirlyy*hands cookie**

**Cookie05*hands cookie**

**Mr Zeze*hands cookie**

**MsWildfire97*hands cookie**

**SkittlesAreMyLife*hands cookie**

The next week

I finally got to the Dumping Ground at 3. I had to take the train since Mike had to take care of 3 new people, 2 girls and a boy, apparently they wouldn't be here for long. Not much happened in the past week. Meetings and music lessons, but not much more. Speaking of music I still need to find a shop that will do something for my guitar. I walked up to the door and knocked on it about 5 times, after waiting for a few minutes. Tracy finally opened the door and let me in.

"Thanks Tracy!" I said, as I dragged all my things in. I was about to take my things to my room, until I heard 2 familiar voices call my name.

"Tess?" I heard a female voice say

"Is that really you?" I heard a deeper, more masculine voice say. I turned around to see who they were. The girl had waist length golden brown hair, with a side swept fringe that covered one of her eyebrows. She had emerald green hair, and she was wearing ripped jeans, a T-Shirt saying "Coool Story Bro, Tell it Again" in black writing. I also noticed her leopard print converse, and she was taller than me, about 5"5. The boy who was next to her had dark brown hair, and emerald green eyes to match the girl's. He was wearing black skinny jeans, a green hoodie and black converse. On closer inspection it finally clicked.

"Allie? Zac? It's great to see you!" I exclaimed, hugging them both.

"Tess, how did you get Alana to talk?" Asked Carmen

"Alana and Zac have the same school bag as Tess, so they must go to her school"

"Yep, Allie's in the year below, Zac's in my year." I added, Gus wrote it down in his notebook.

"Why will Alana only talk to you and Zac?" asked Gus

"I guess she trusts us," said Zac

"Why are you both in care?" asked Gus

"Should I tell him or should Tess?" Zac asked Allie, she just shrugged. Zac sighed and started to explain "Our Mum died in a fire lest year, and our Dad beat us and raped Allie."

"I need to give you the tour." Said Gus. Zac followed Gus, and Allie followed, gripping Zac's arm tightly.

"That new boy is so good looking!" exclaimed Carmen.

"He doesn't really talk much though."

"I don't blame him." I muttered, before I went to my room and dropped my bags. I got my guitar and inspected the neck of it. I groaned in frustration, figuring that it cost between £100 and £150 to fix. Why do I have to have blackouts?! I spent about 30 minutes, holding my guitar and wallowing in my own self-pity, until I decided to get over it and put those thoughts to the back of my head and went downstairs to the living room, where everyone was quizzing Allie, as she sat in the corner of the sofa defensively.

"Will you guys leave her alone?!" I snapped at them

"Not our fault she won't talk"

"I doubt she would if you won't even give her some space."

"But how will she answer our questions?" asked Tee

"Wait here." I sighed, as I walked to the toy cupboard and rummaged through all the toys, until I found a whiteboard which was the same size as an Ipad and a few pens. I walked right back to the living room and handed them to Allie. "If they ask you any questions, just write them down on here, you don't have to say anything if you don't want to, okay?" I explain, she nodded and hugged me, whispering an extremely quiet "Thank you" into my ear, before I sat down next to her and began watching TV.

"How old are you Allie?" asked Carmen, she quickly wrote 14 on the board and showed it to Carmen

"Why don't you talk?" asked Electra

"Because I don't want to." Allie wrote down

"And why don't you want to?" Electra asked again. Allie lowered her head, her eyes were brimming with tears

"Electra stop asking her those questions." I snapped, before I turned my attention back to the TV

"Or what?"

"Do you really want to find out?!" I said angrily

"Yeah I do want to find out." Electra replied, smirking. I picked up a bottle of Lucozade somebody had left on the coffee table and stood up

"What's going on?" asked Liam, who'd just come in.

"This" I said, pulling the back of Electra's grey jumper out of the way, and pouring about half of the bottle down her back, and then pouring the rest on her face and hair. "That's a nice look for you!" I said, smiling. I looked around to see everyone snickering, and Allie with a massive grin on her face.

"I am going to kill you!" Electra screamed, lunging at me.

"Get off of me! You're all sticky!" I screamed, as she yanked my hair.

"Because of you!" she yelled back, as I slapped her across the face and tried to push her off of me, but she was still pulling my hair.

"What is this?!" Mike yelled "You two, office, now!" said Mike, we both groaned and stormed off to the office. We were sat there for about 5 minutes; Electra had a hand mark across her face, while my head was killing me, as Electra had probably pulled out a clump of my hair. "Why were you girls fighting?!" asked Mike.

"Because she wouldn't leave Allie alone!"

"What's it to you Tess?! You never mind your own business?!" Yelled Electra

"Well I know what that girl's like, and what she's been through, I bet you'd be similar if half of those things happened to you!" I replied

"And what happened then?!"

"Her mum died last year Electra! In a fire! And she was beaten and raped by her dad! You parents have never done anything like that to you have they! You never think of anyone but yourself!" I screamed, not even caring that everyone else was probably listening in through the door.

"That is enough! Tess, Electra, I am docking £15 pounds from your allowances, and be glad that you're not getting sanctioned"

"What?!" we both yelled

"What about my guitar?! That's going to cost like 100, 150 quid! Screw this I'm leaving" I shouted, storming out of my room and upstairs into my room, Ignoring the crowd of people gathered by the door. I checked my hair in the mirror. My hair looked fine but my head still hurt. I groaned and got up when I heard a knock on my door.

"Who is it?" I asked

"Voldemort Titch, let me in." said Liam

"Oi don't be rude." I said once I'd opened the door.

"What were ya yellin' 'bout a guitar?" he asked, reminding me that he still had no idea about my guitar.

"My guitar, the neck's cracked." I said, picking it up and showing it to him.

"I'll get it fixed." Said Liam

"Don't bother, it going to cost like £150." I muttered

"I don't care Titch, I can tell it's important to ya." Said Liam. I grinned and kissed him.

"So where's Electra?" I asked

"Dunno really, probably mopin' around in 'er room." Said Liam. "Why don't ya come downstairs, play a game of pool?" he offered, holding his hand out.

"Alright." I said, grabbing his hand and going downstairs with him to the living room. I picked up a pool cue and was about to take a shot when the doorbell rang. Guess the other girl's here.

"I'll get it." Said Mike. I went back to taking my turn and waited for Liam to take his

"Hi! I'm Carmen, and this s Tee and Lily!" I overheard Carmen say. I went down the stairs to see that the new girl was here. She had strawberry blonde hair that went to her shoulders, with a side swept fringe that was dyed green, with emerald green eyes, like Allie's and Zac's. She was wearing grey leopard print leggings, with a white top with a black cross on it, with green converse.

"My name it Gus Carmichael, I need to know your name."

"Lilibeth, Jennings." She stated.

"Age?"

"13"

"I need to give you a tour" said Gus

"Why?"

"Because if I don't then I can't cross it off my list, and If I don't cross it off my list, then I can cross anything else off my list, and today won't work"

"If I were you I'd just go with it." I said, walking back to the pool table to continue Liam and I's game of pool. The new girl seemed nice, I guess.

"Can we join in?" asked Rick, and Frank

"Alright, I'll go with Titch, Rick goes with Frank" said Liam. We played pool for about 20 minutes, until Rick and Frank won

"We win"

"Best 2 out of 3?" I suggested as Gus came by with the new girl.

"Lilibeth this is Tess, Liam, Rick and Frank. Liam and Tess are boyfriend and girlfriend." Said Gus

"Hey, call me Beth, can I join in?"

"Bet you won't be able ta beat me score"

"Here." I said, handing her mine.

"One on one?" Liam offered

"You're on." Said Beth. 10 minutes later, she beat Liam by far, she was pretty good.

"See Liam? Girls rule!" I said, high fiving Beth. I have a feeling that Beth, Allie and Zac are going to get along fine.

**Thanks for reading!**

**A/N: This chapter was mainly focusing on Allie, the next one will be more about Zac and Beth. **

**Tell me what you think! :D**


	34. Another Busy Day in the Dumping Ground

**Massive thanks to:**

**AwesomeSaucee123* hands cookie* thanks for your review**

** .2013*hands cookie*don't worry I haven't abandoned this**

**SkittlesAreMyLife*hands cookie* It's fine, also thanks for creating Allie and Zac :P**

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I was just about to beat Liam at a game of pool when Gina called everyone to have dinner. I groaned and put my pool cue on the pool table and went to the dining table.

"Continue when we finish dinner?" I offered as I plonked myself down in a seat next to Beth and Liam.

"Yep, bet ya I'll win!" said Liam, I sighed and smirked at him, before I put some macaroni cheese and chips on my plate. I picked off the crunchy bits from my plate and started tucking in.

"Hey where's Allie?" I asked, scanning the dinner table and noticing that there was 1 spare seat

"Beth, why are you in care?" asked Gus.

"My parents both died in a car crash on their way to a wedding." sighed Beth

"Were you in the car?" asked Gus,

"I don't see how it was any of your business, but I wasn't. I was staying at my Grandma's house. She had cancer so I really, wanted to see her before she, well, y'know" She trailed off, it seemed like a hard subject to talk about, a bit like Frank and his grandad. I practically scoffed my food in about 5 minutes and put my dish in the dishwasher. I went to my room and got my guitar. Looking through my window I saw Allie walking outside. I dashed back down to the garden, where I saw Allie walk off to the spot at the back of the garden. I followed her and saw her curled up in a ball sitting on one of the benches.

"Hey Allie." I said quietly, taking a seat in the other bench.

"Hey, It's so loud." She remarked, her voice little above a whisper. "Can you play something for me?" She requested, noticing my guitar which was slung over my shoulder.

"Like?"

"Anything." she replied, flashing a small smile at me. I sighed and decided on Skinny Love by Ed Sheeran, originally by Bon Iver.

Come on skinny love just last the year  
Pour a little salt we were never here  
My my my - my my my  
My my my my  
Staring at the sink of blood and crushed veneer

I tell my love to wreck it all  
Cut out all the ropes and let me fall  
My my my - my my my  
My my my my  
Right in the moment this order's tall

I told you to be patient  
I told you to be fine  
I told you to be balanced  
I told you to be kind

In the morning I'll be with you  
But it will be a different kind  
I'll be holding all the tickets  
And you'll be owning all the fines

Come on skinny love what happened here  
Suckle on the hope in lite brassiere  
My my my - my my my  
My my my my  
Sullen load is full so slow on the split

I told you to be patient  
I told you to be fine  
I told you to be balanced  
I told you to be kind

Now all your love is wasted  
then who the hell was I?  
Cause now I'm breaking at the bridges  
And at the end of all your lines

Who will love you? who will fight?  
And who will fall, far behind?  
Who will love you? who will fight?  
And who will fall, far behind?

"You have a really nice voice Tess." She said.

"Come on, let's go back inside, it won't help if you stay outside forever, plus you'll get a cold." I said, sticking my hand out. She looked at it and grabbed my hand, I helped her up and we went back inside. Allie sat on the couch and watched TV with Tee and Carmen, who were watching Wizards of Waverly Place. I put my guitar down in the corner of the room and picked up a pool cue.

"Shall we continue?" I offered to Liam.

"Wanna go in teams?" He asked

"Alright." I sighed. " Oi Rick, Beth. Do you guys want to join us?" I asked, calling out to them.

"Sure." Beth shrugged. "Girls vs boys?" She offered. I nodded my head, smirking at Rick and Liam. I handed her the cue as she took a turn. About 5 games later, Beth and I won. "We win!" she said, grinning, though the corner of my eye I noticed most of the boys were staring at her in admiration. When we were done playing pool I was about to leave the living room to put my guitar back in my room, when I bumped into Zac and slipped over.

"Oops, didn't mean to knock you over!" said Zac, who was stifling a laugh. He stuck his hand out and I grabbed it, scrambling to my feet. "Sorry." He shrugged.

"It's fine." I sighed, picking up my guitar. I noticed that the girls were staring at Zac, like how the boys were staring at Beth. I laughed to myself and went upstairs to put my guitar away, and went back downstairs, where Liam was about to play another game of pool with Rick.

"Piggyback!" I screamed, jumping on his back, catching him off balance.

"Oi Titch!" He yelled back, since I'd messed up his shot, so Rick won.

"Cheers Tess." Said Rick, who patted my on the back while he walked off out of the living room. Bursting into fits of laughter, I climbed off Liam's back.

"Thanks Titch!" Liam said sarcastically, but still smiling. I was aout to go when Liam started tickling me.

"Liam stop!" I yelled, while panting, but he wouldn't let up.

"Nope Titch!" He said, giving me a cheeky grin as he continued tickling me.

"No STOP, PLEASE! I'm going to die! I can't breathe!" I begged between fits of laughter. After a few more minutes of torture Liam finally stopped.

"Didn't know that ya' re that ticklish" Liam said, as I leant on my knees trying to catch my breath.

"Well no shit Sherlock." I said.

"Hey Tess can I talk to you?" asked Mike. I nodded and followed him to his office.

"What did you want to say?" I asked, leaning on the wall

"Well 2 things."

"Shoot."

"First, Beth is going to be sharing with you for the night, since her room isn't ready." He said, waiting for me to kick off or react in some way

"Ok, what else?" I asked.

"Your dad wants to visit you again, and it's been approved by Elaine." Said Mike

Shit...

**Thanks for reading this chapter!**

**Sorry about not updating for ages (AGAIN) my cousin spilt tea on my laptop D':**

**But I think I'm getting a new one :D**

**Anyways, thanks for reading and hopefully reviewing**


	35. Guilt Tripping

**Thanks to:**

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Once Mike broke the news to me, he looked at me warily, like I was a ticking time bomb, or a firework which hadn't detonated properly. I took a deep breath in counting to ten like Elaine.

"Wait what? You mean Elaine said yes?!" I questioned, getting increasingly frustrated

"'Fraid so." replied Mike

"Does she even know what happened the last time?" I asked

"Yes, and be both think that it's about time that you talked to him, you know what happened wasn't his fault." said Mike. I groaned in defeat, knowing that he had a point

"I know, but the person to blame is dead." I replied.

"Look, we won't make you do anything you don't want to do, just consider it, okay?"

"If I say yes, when will it be?" I asked

"Tomorrow. Don't worry Tess, I know that you'll make the right decision." He said. I nodded and left the office. I was slightly unsure about how to react to what he just said, as he was either reassuring me, or trying to guilt trip me into agreeing. I climbed up the stairs and went into my room,grunting in frustration. I was startled when I saw Beth sitting on a bed listening to music on her phone.

"Hey Beth, why are you in my room?" I asked

"My room isn't ready so I was put in here for the night." Beth replied, I sighed, fetched my stress ball from under my bed and left. I went up into the attic and plonked myself down leaning against a box filled with god-knows-what. I threw the stress ball against the wall, caught it and threw it again. This mindless process calms me down for some reason.

"Tess, I know you're in here." I heard Rick call out from the bottom of the stairs.

"What is it?" I sighed

"I heard about your dad." Rick said as he came up the stairs. I continued throwing the ball against the wall.

"Nothing in this place stays secret for long." I muttered.

"I know, but despite that it's not too bad here." said Rick

"Yeah, at most care homes it's basically anarchy, yet here, people seem to genuinely care for each other, like a family. Pretty ironic, don't you think?"

"How?" asked Rick

"Well, we're here because our real family's are either dead, ill or just terrible. Yet, we find a better community, which is like a big family, and to be honest, that's all I need." I explained.

"True, but are you going to agree with the visit?" asked Rick

"I-I have no clue. What do you think I should do?" I asked

"Say yes, if he turns out to be a prick then you don't have to see him ever again, but if he turns out to be a nice guy, then I guess you'll miss out." said Rick. "Just think about it, ok?" He said.

"Cheers Rick." I said, hugging him. He jumped to his feet and went back down the stairs, leaving me with my own thoughts for company. Sometimes being alone is just what someone needs, but often people fail to see that. After around about 20 to 25 minutes of peaceful thinking, and throwing stress balls against walls, I still had no clue about what to say. I scrambled to my feet and left the attic, looking for Tracy. I eventually found her in the kitchen, where she was making dinner.

"I'm not even going to ask what the hell that is." I said.

"Thanks!" she replied sarcastically

"Hey Tracy, can I ask you something?" I asked

"Um, sure, go ahead." she replied

"My dad's visiting, and it's been approved, should I say yes?"

"I can't decide for you, but If I were you I'd say yes."

"Did your mum ever visit when you were in care?" I asked

"Yeah, every time she said that she was going to visit, I said yes."

"You make it sound like sometimes she didn't turn up."

"Sometimes she didn't, but at least if I said yes, it wasn't my fault." She said, with a smile that showed on her mouth, but not on her eyes. I was guessing that I'd accidentally reminded her about her mum and triggered all these thoughts.

"Thanks Tracy, I think I know what I'm going to do." I said, Tracy smiled at me, and I smiled back. I still don't know what the hell Tracy was cooking.

" 'ey Titch, fancy goin' ta the cafe with me, Frank and Beth?" Liam offered

"I'll pass. Can you bring me a hot chocolate?" I asked

"Fine." sighed Liam

"Cheers, by the way have you seen Mike?"

"Uh, I think that he's in ta office." said Liam

"Thanks, see you." I replied, planting a quick peck on his lips and strolling to Mike's office. I banged on the door 3 times, and stood waiting at the door. I figured that he wasn't in there as he didn't reply.

"Come in." He said just as I had turned around as was about to walk off.

"Mike, I'm going to agree to the visit." I said quietly, as I opened the door.

"That's great! I'll call Elaine straight away."

"Please do before I change my mind." I groaned

"Ok, I told you that you'd make the right decision" He said, patting my on the shoulder. Now I'm almost certain that he was guilt tripping me into saying yes.

**Thanks for reading and reviewing!**

**It will get better soon I swear...**


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